Ethics of Genetic Engineering in February 1997,

Ethics of Genetic Engineering

In February 1997, genetic engineering was thrust into the spotlight when Dolly, the first mammal clone, was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. The world has had heated discussions over the issues surrounding genetic engineering ever since. The selective engineering of genetics is invaluable to the health and happiness of humans. The importance of this issue has played second fiddle to the arguments, for and against genetic engineering. The impact of genetic engineering on our everyday lives can be enormous. While many feel genetic engineering is unethical, this paper will show the benefits are substantial.

In the past, the majority of people have been against the use of these experimental procedures because of the possibility of deadly outcomes. Because not much is known about genetic engineering, this discovery could improve our lives and should be allowed to progress despite the risks it poses and the public outcry against it. If people could understand genetic engineering, perhaps they would be more accepting of it.

The first step to understanding genetic engineering and embracing its possibilities for society is to obtain a rough knowledge base of its history and method. The basis for altering the evolutionary process is dependent on the understanding of how individuals pass on characteristics to their offspring. Genetics achieved its first foothold on the secrets of nature's evolutionary process when an Austrian monk named Gregor Mendel developed the first "laws of heredity." Using these laws, scientists studied the characteristics of organisms for most of the next one hundred years following Mendel's discovery. These early studies concluded that each organism has two sets of character determinants, or genes (Stableford 1996). For instance, in regards to eye color, a child could receive one set of genes from his or her father that were encoded one blue, and the other brown. The same child could also receive two brown genes from his or her mother. The conclusion for this inheritance would be the child has a three in four chance of having brown eyes, and a one in three chance of having blue eyes (Stableford 1996).

Genes are transmitted through chromosomes, which reside in the nucleus of every living organism's cells. Each chromosome is made up of fine strands of deoxyribonucleic acids, or DNA. The information carried on the DNA determines the cells function within the organism.

Sex cells are the only cells that contain a complete DNA map of the organism, therefore, "the structure of a DNA molecule or combination of DNA molecules determines the shape, form, and function of the [organism's] offspring " (Lewin). DNA discovery is attributed to the research of three scientists, Francis Crick, Maurice Wilkins, and James Dewey Watson in 1951. They were all later accredited with the Nobel Prize in physiology and medicine in 1962 (Hawley 1998).

The new science of genetic engineering aims to take a dramatic short cut in the slow process of evolution" (Stableford 1996). In essence, scientists aim to remove one gene from an organism's DNA, and place it into the DNA of another organism. This would create a new DNA strand, full of new encoded instructions; a strand that would have taken Mother Nature millions of years of natural selection to develop. Isolating and removing a desired gene from a DNA strand involves many different tools. Exposing it to ultra-high frequency sound waves can break up DNA, but this is an extremely inaccurate way of isolating a desirable DNA section (Stableford 1996). A more accurate way of DNA splicing is the use of "restriction enzymes, which are produced by various species of bacteria" (Clarke 1994). The restriction enzymes cut the DNA strand at a particular location called a nucleotide base, which makes up a DNA molecule. Now that the desired portion of the DNA is cut out, it can be joined to another strand of DNA by using enzymes called lipases. The final important step in the creation of a new DNA strand is giving it the ability to self-replicate. This can be accomplished by using special pieces of DNA, called vectors, that permit the generation of multiple copies of a total DNA strand and fusing it to the newly created DNA structure. Another newly developed method, called polymerase chain reaction, allows for faster replication of DNA strands and does not require the use of vectors (Clarke 1994).