Genetic Engineering?

[Kfamr]

What do you think of Genentic Engineering?

Do you know what it is?
What are your views on it?



Personally, I think it's okay as long as it's done for medical reasons and medical reasons only. And, If the aprents chose to have it done.

We had to write a paper with our views on it today in Biology and I thought it would be neat to know all fo your opinons on it.

[mahayana]

Hey Kfamr,

Sounds like you have a good biology teacher!

I am way into genetic theory, the idea that the pattern for every living thing is present in the nucleus of every cell in its body.

Have you studied Mendel, the monk who pollinated short bean plants and tall bean plants, and kept track of their "children"?

Or Luther Burbank, who created most of our modern fruit varieties (and lily varieties and the russet potato) by crossing plants and growing seeds?

All of the different breeds of dogs and cats came from cross-breeding and selection. This was the predecessor of genetic engineering. GE actually changes and combines the DNA in "first cells" that become embryos of plants and animals, as does fertilization.

Anything in particular you are wondering about? This is a much larger subject than the ethics of stem cell research, or of medical things. It's about a human role in speeded-up evolution!

[smokey the elder]

Genetic engineering has the same effect as selective breeding, only greatly accelerated. I don't have any problem with using it to repair deleted genes in people. Many serious diseases are caused by deleted or miscopied genes.

I have trouble with transgenics ( grafting genes from one species to another) in higher animals and flowering plants. These could have unforseen effects (corn that kills monarch butterflies, for example.)

I think genengineering of bacteria to produce insulin, vaccines, etc. is a good thing; the organisms must be controlled.

Organisms designed to eat toxic waste are interesting, but again must be constrained from entering the general environment.

Genetic engineering in humans to enhance a desired trait is eugenics and as such objectionable.

JMHO.

[mahayana]

The whole subject has the "don't mess with mother nature" undercurrent. We really could create a monster, as witness natural mutations of disease organisms, terrorist WMD biological agents, etc.

I think there was a Stephen King movie that showed corn plants growing in the snow. Such things are possible, as spinach and kale and wheat have genes for natural anti-freeze, and they could be grafted in theory.

Another obvious research for GE is regeneration, as lizards regrow their tails and sharks replace their teeth. What if...?

The part of the code that programs aging is another; I think they are using fruit flies and flatworms at this time. Many folks would choose to delay their onset of losing hair, feeble-mindedness, menopause (the list goes on), if they could.

[RICHARD]

when working on genetic engineering do you have to wear a hard hat?

[mahayana]

More likely the ones driving this "crazy train" will wear labcoats and look like doctors.

Most mutations are fatal, only a tiny fraction are improvements. I would guess the same will apply to GE. While someone may have a plan for a changing a lifeform, trying to get there may yield different results.

"Dr. Pandora, how is your project coming along?"

[2kitties]

I guess it is alot like most things in science: Wonderful and Hopeful on the one hand, and Terrifying on the other.

[mahayana]

I think you have it right, 2kitties. Smokey mentioned the word Eugenics. My dictionary dates the term's origin at 1883, so the idea of creating new "breeds" of people has been around for awhile.

Hitler's program for creating a "master race" is an example from the 1930s.

What is different today is that fertility clinics and sperm banks are available, for a price, to all. The technology for "test-tube babies" is still not developed enough to take an embryo all the way to a viable baby without a human mother, but it's getting close. Embryos have been transplanted from one species to another, tissues have been "cultured" artificially, genes have been spliced.

If you want to place GE in a religious context (as I do), God has given humanity a role in the ongoing Creation. Science is involved in evolution. Interesting, eh?

[mahayana]

I was watching the Westminster Dog Show the other night, being amazed by how different all the breeds of dogs are from one another. Isn't it odd how tiny the Greyhound head is, compared to the body?

Has anybody got ideas for new animals? How would you design a new pet, if you could order up different shapes, sizes, colors,etc?

I can imagine skunks that are born without stink glands, bees without stingers, miniature Saint Bernards, Wolfhounds, Dalmations...giant Chihuahuas, goat-size giraffes. What do you say?

Kfamr- how did you do on your paper?