Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Genetic Engineering
Genetic engineering has recently become a serious issue in today’s culture and is a large topic of debate. The process of genetic engineering is when genes are artificially transferred and altered from one organism to another. These genes are an area of DNA, which is the controller of hereditary characteristics. It carries biological information, which must be copied and transmitted from each cell. Genetic engineering has been conducted through plants, animals and bacteria but the most controversial topic is concerning humans. The three ways genetic engineering would be used for humans are cloning, somatic cell manipulation and human germline manipulation. The process of cloning, which is the most familiar for most people, is taking DNA from an existing person and using it to create a new human. Somatic cell manipulation is to correct a genetic component of a disease instead of treating it with drugs. These somatic cells are cells of the body that do not pass DNA to the following generations. Germline manipulation is
changes in the sperm or egg, which will be inherited by
later generations. Germcells are cells, which don’t pass DNA to successive generations. The article entitled, Company seeks FDA permission to conduct clinical trial using human embryonic stem cells, pertains to testing retinal cells grown from stem cells in people with Stargardt’s macular dystrophy. The people with this rare eye disease would be the first to be treated with human embryonic stem cells. -Audrey Gleason
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I can’t believe people could still be opposed to stem cell research. If this can help people survive then why aren’t we exploring more of this? I think it will be a shame if the FDA doesn’t approve this study and test. If I came down with a rare eye disease or any disease in fact, and the cure lies in stem cells, I would desperately want to explore that option.
Now the question of cloning human beings is a little more difficult. To create a full human being for “spare” parts in my mind is wrong. Engineering new human beings just feels wrong. It’s not a case of religious views or anything like that, it just feels like ground we shouldn’t go into.
On the other hand creating organs from cloning seems perfectly fine to me. Again this is sort of like stem cells. If can create a new liver for someone with liver disease than go right ahead. There could be problems with this though as well. People might live there lives a little more crazy if they knew they had an extra liver hanging around. The fear of long term alcohol abuse would probably disappear. If it’s a self inflicted disease, like lung cancer from smoking or liver failure from alcohol, then you should have to pay for the full medical expense. Other than that I think it should be performed and taken care by your medical insurance. Just no cloning humans..that just would be weird.
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