Genetic Engeneering in Humans

Antony Rickhuss

Advantages of Genetic Engineering in Humans

The genetic engineering of animals is one of the biggest leaps forward in science and human history; it poses many advantages and disadvantages and has been met with mixed opinions from a number of organisations. Genetic engineering allows us to choose certain characteristics about people and can be used to prevent certain hereditary illnesses usually passed down by carrier parents to their babies, with more understanding and research it can be used to prevent more and more illnesses (1) + (4)

Genetic Engineering in the form of Gene Therapy can be used to cure hereditary illnesses like cystic fibrosis and sickle cell anemia by repairing or replacing missing genes in people, it is less dangerous than using infective agents like adenoviruses as vectors because the genes can be inserted into liposome’s which are much safer and cause less chance of failure. Cancer is another illness which can be treated with Gene therapy because then the treatment will only target the cancer cells and not damage any other cells like the radiation and chemical treatments do today, this makes the treatment of cancer much safer. Testing has already begun on genetically engineered mice to fight Epidermolysis bullosa simplex which affects a number of children lacking in the protein keratin, after four days of treatment 85% of the mice were free from blistered skin, other diseases like this could be treated by using genetically engineered animals. (5) Another way in which genetic engineering could help people’s quality of life is by therapeutic cloning which allows the growth of human tissue which could be used for transplantation without the need for an embryo stage – removing previous moral and ethical objections. (1) + (4)

Genetic modification of crops and plants could help the human race in a variety of ways it could make certain crops easier to mass produce, ending hunger and starvation in the world; it could allow us to control our atmosphere ending climate change by modifying the respiration of plants. But at the moment nobody really knows the full dangers these foods could have on the human population and the production of these foods is carefully controlled.

With genetic engineering, parents will be able to choose the characteristics of their children such as; eye colour, hair colour, ...

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With genetic engineering, parents will be able to choose the characteristics of their children such as; eye colour, hair colour, talents and traits and create their own image of a perfect child. Not entirely unlike sperm and eggs from attractive and intelligent people being sold today, genetic engineering would just ensure that the result would meet the wishes of the parents which could also give the child a better quality of life if he/she had previously had an undesirable genetic trait which would have caused problems later in life. (1)

Religious organisations like the Roman Catholic Church oppose all aspects of genetic engineering, they believe that God created all creatures on Earth and every species has the right to preserve its genetic integrity and by altering it you are messing with Gods work.(2) Christians argue the dangers posed by genetic engineering are not yet known and deaths may occur from accidents which could have been avoided. Some groups supporting genetic engineering have stated that selective breeding is not opposed by religion so why is genetic engineering, which is similar in the way that it essentially tweaks DNA to create a modified product.(4)

Although scientists have come a long way in genetic engineering there is still a lot to be understood and until the entire Human Genome is deciphered scientists will not fully understand the benefits and dangers posed by genetic engineering, it is estimated that the Human genome project could take up to another 12 years to be completed (3 – pg244), this is because each chromosome can have up to and over 100 million base pairs. But once completed the possibilities and creations occurring from this technology will be endless, some have even stated that old age, disease and hunger will be a thing of the past. (3) + (4)

Overall, the advantages of genetic engineering are endless – curing disease, illnesses, preventing hunger, removing unwanted genetic traits or creating new ones, helping reduce transplant patients, improving quality of life. The only disadvantages are a lack of understanding at this present stage in the technology can lead to all sorts of problems which are not yet fully understood.

For example, in the base sequence GAATTC, the restriction enzyme that cuts this site cleaves the DNA between the "G" and the "A" on each complementary strand, thus leaving the overhangs of AATT & TTAA respectively Over 200 different restriction enzyme have been isolated that cut at many different specific DNA sequences. They are all QUITE and this specificity is the KEY to their use. Restriction enzymes that cut at 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, and 11 base pair palindrome sites have been found. It follows that the MORE BASE PAIRS in the palindrome site the LESS LIKELY a site is to exist statistically. That is, a 4-base-cutting restriction enzyme cuts the same DNA many more times than an 8-base-cutter does. The odd numbered cutting sites are not true DNA palindromes, in that the central base pair reads different in the two directions. For example AA?TT is a 5 base pair cutting site, where the ? = a number of different bases.

Bibiography

http://www.ifgene.org/proscons.htm - (1)

http://www.agbioworld.org/biotech-info/religion/lesseps.html - (2)

Remaking Eden: Lee M Silver – (3)

http://www.geneticengineering.org/isgood/default.htm – (4)

Daily Mirror 3rd December 2007 pg 24 – (5)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/1185972.stm

http://grumpus.blog.co.uk/2007/05/24/bbc_news_a_level_biology_easy_peasy~2327492