The drivers for producing genetically modified organisms are to make a profit by improving the efficiency of food production, and/or to solve specific problems such as creating drought-resistant plants, dealing with pests which have become resistant to insecticides or delivering useful vaccines within familiar foods.
The debate of GMOs being only harmful to only humans is not totally true. Where it got disadvantages, it got some pretty good advantages as well. It is because of this precision that scientists were able to make a copy of DNA that served as the blueprint for human insulin. The copy was inserted into bacteria which then produced human insulin. Such insulin has been used with absolute safety for years. This same precision is used to modify plant genes to produce proteins that plants would not otherwise make.
GM crops can reduce the amount of pesticides used and can be produced at a very large scale and can prevent starvation and provide foods for poor countries like Africa. (Global science: 2002)
Another research about GMOs lead by James Shapiro, a surgeon working at the University of Alberta, Canada showed that the cells called pancreatic islets can produce sufficient insulin to allow the patients to live for the first time without up to 15 injections of insulin a day.
Finding a donor organ for a patient have always been a problem but in 1999 when a Cambridge based team told a conference that they had kept a baboon alive for 40 days with a “humanised” pig heart. The use of humanised animal organs is being pursued to meet a shortage of donor organs. A normal heart of pig will not work in such conditions. Pig hearts can be “humanised” by the introduction of human genes to persuade human immune system to accept foreign organ. So here again GMO has proved itself as not harmful to humans but helpful.
But sure Genetic Modification has raised many moral and ethical issues. In America animal organs transportation have been criticised after few research’s showed that pigs which are most promoting source for organ transportation carry’s a virus that can effect human cells.
Many issues have been raised in human genetic modification. It is possible for parents to choose their babies characteristics like blonde, tall, smart, athletic etc with the help of genetic modification. Francis Fukuyama, famous on the basis of his book, The end of history produced our post human future, which argues for legislative control of such technologies. He said that we might change our evolution by practising such technologies.
Fukuyama’s faith in human nature is based on a combination of evolutionary and cultural factors. We are the way we are, we form the kinds of societies because of our evolutionary legacy. If we change what we are, we change the very basis of our societies; we might even destroy our ability to make societies.
Genetically modified foods can not only effects ecological system but it also affects the economical industry. First if a GM virus or bacterium is used to control a pest than we have to make sure that it only the pest species is affected not related beneficial species.
To grow a field of GM crops is easy and less expensive than normal so by this a large amount of population can be adopt farming as profession which will not only affect the existing normal farmers, it will has its effect on the chemical, farming industry as well.
Not only industry will be affected, many religious issues can rise. Many religious people have said that playing god will destroy the human race and our evolution will change.
For example idea of “designer babies” have been criticised by almost every religion. The organ transplantation has not been safe by these groups especially when a research showed that a heart of pig can used to replace human heart. In few religions pig is not acceptable to eat so being it a part of you really creates a religious issue.
Our environment and eco system can also change by Genetic modification. In few debates it has been said that GMO will change our evolution and human race can change. As new research showed that GM potatoes are toxic to laboratory rats. (Aftenposten) but new research will be able to cure this problem and in end what I would like to say that Genetic modification of organisms can offer enormous benefits to medicine and agriculture. Biotechnology industries based on genetic techniques are developing rapidly across the world. While some of the likely, short-term impacts of GMOs on the environment are known, there is less certainty about long-term implications. The use of pesticides has led to the evolution of resistance in pests. We know that genetic modification of crops and micro-organisms will lead to evolutionary change. The question is how far that could offset the benefits of biotechnology. Advances in biotechnology need to be matched by progress in understanding, predicting and preventing any adverse environmental consequences.
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Bibliography
Global Science Magazine (November 2002)
Aftenposten Newspaper.
NERC ()
Telegraph Newspaper
References from school library.
