Genetic engineering: methods, applications, and implications

Genetic Engineering

The objective of any discovery should be the development of knowledge to improve the general condition of mankind, but now the entire process of discovery, supported through patents seems to be only an exercise for the financial benefit of the discoverer. One instance of this is in the case of genetic engineering. Now the DNA discovery has taken place and the scientists have also started looking at the genetic code. This has brought the scientists to a level of knowledge where they can start creating organisms that were not created by the process of evolution or God, whatever you believe in. This is leading to development of fruit flies with eyes on the antennae. Yet the scientists do not understand the functions and forms of organisms by just looking at the genes. The scientists are interested in the physical traits as these determine the commercial value of the organism to be developed, but that is only a small part of the qualities of the organism. The development scientists should try to find out the essence or telos of the organism. At the same time, all organisms require various conditions and materials for their development and growth and these are water, nutrients, warmth and light. (the Cons in a General Sense)

The present views of scientists on development of organisms are similar to the early stages in the development of nuclear power. At that stage it was felt that production of electricity through nuclear power would make it very inexpensive, but the development has now left us a world of nuclear waste that we do not know how to clean up. The harm has been passed on to the future. A similar situation is in the area of breeding, and the argument was that the genetic make up of animals was being modified by selective breeding. This is quite similar to the situation in genetic engineering today, but the entire processes are different. In the old type of breeding the gene exchange takes place in the animals within the limits of the environment and testing center. The results were also seen in real life. Yet even there the results were not predictable by the experimenters. In some cases, the gene for a red flower was put in a white flower, and the white flower turned red in the next development, but ended up having more leaves and shoots. It had reduced fertility and improved resistance to fungi. These side effects became known only after the next generation came out and could not be predicted by the experimenters. (the Cons in a General Sense)

Another important question is that through this development in science we are trying to become God. It is true that some experiments are leading to good medical products; the new movement into the area of cloning humans and animals is a lot more troublesome to judge. One of the effects could be an effort to create a perfect race like the dream of the Nazis. This is the destruction of a quality of humans that is being seen from the time of the start of the human species - individuality. One also does not know whether the clone, if successful, will have a soul. Cloning is not a direct involvement only of creating the body; it is a matter of trying to act like God. When a person is cloned it is not necessary that the clone will have the same faith and beliefs of the original. The clone may not even know that it was just a clone and not an original human. Genetic engineering could end up producing children to the specifications of the parents and give the children the qualities and talents that the parents want the children to have. (Opponent View of Genetic Engineering)

Yet, if the talent was given to them by a scientist and had not come about through the process of creation by God, would the talent bloom? Their may not be any regulation by the present day laws in this context, but would morality permit the society giving that individual the benefits of qualities that has been instilled in him by scientists? The results of human cloning are unknown as no known human clones are still moving around. The experience that we have is in the cloning of Dolly and the animal was conceived through the use of an egg from one ewe and a body cell from another ewe. The point to be noted is that it was not a normal process of creation. This means that in the process of creation for humans, there may be no requirement for a man. This would certainly change the world that exists today. These bring us to a point where we end up questioning the true purpose of genetic engineering and through that method, question the righteousness of the entire set of efforts. (Opponent View of Genetic Engineering)

The types of animals and products that are being discovered now often seem to have no direction and soon a day may come when individuals will be developing items to satisfy their own personal idiosyncrasies, somewhat similar to the creation of computer viruses, or virus attacks. This is seen in the creation of a virus accidentally by an Australian group. This kills every one of its victims through the method of removing the immune systems of the group involved in the attack. The virus that has been created is a mousepox, and does not affect humans though it is similar to smallpox. This is similar to technologies that can be used for terrorist activities. Originally the developers had no intention of preparing a virus, but they wanted to make a contraceptive vaccine for pest control for mice. For creation of a contraceptive vaccine for mice, the group was trying to stir up the antibodies against the eggs of mice and thus make them infertile. The injection of the virus was intended to serve only as a method for moving egg proteins into the mice. (Killer Virus: An engineered mouse virus leaves us one step away from the ultimate bioweapon)

The researchers added a gene for IL-4 for the antibody production to be increased. The results were quite different from expectations and the cell mediated response did not happen and that is the part of immune system normally reacting to infections by virus. The reaction of mousepox is normally quite mild in the types of mice that were being used for the study, but when the gene was added, it ended up cleaning out the entire population within a period of nine days. The results of this sort of research are also sensitive to being published as the defense authorities are worried about the results being used by the wrong types of people - the terrorists. The seriousness of this experiment can be understood from the comments by D.A. Henderson who said "I can't for the life of me figure out how we are going to deal with this." (Killer Virus: An engineered mouse virus leaves us one step away from the ultimate bioweapon) He is a former U.S. presidential advisor and director for that center in John Hopkins University. (Killer Virus: An engineered mouse virus leaves us one step away from the ultimate bioweapon)

Other scientist are getting into areas of research which seem to be of no practical use and succeeds in creating animals that are neither animals or plants. According to reports, pigs implanted with spinach have been created by Japanese scientists. The report mentioned that it was the first plant gene to be inserted into any animal. The developed pigs had a new gene called FAD2 and this converted saturated fats into unsaturated fats in the form of linolic acid. According to the scientists conducting the research this led the pigs to have 20% less fats than the normal pigs, and could thus be better as food. The experiment had ended some time ago and the information was not released till confirmation was received that the pigs born to the original ones also had the same characteristics. This modification has now been confirmed in three generation of pigs and seven generation of mice. (GM pigs are both meat and Veg. New Scientist) We are coming to a stage where we are modifying animals to suit our palate, and are these justifiable?

It has been seen that genetically modified foods have been rejected all over the world, and the new concentration is on developing products that can be of help to the consumers and humanity at a later date. This is leading to a lot of advertising for the rice containing the golden vitamin - a. The claimed health benefits have been largely not proved to be true in many parts of the world, and activists in the poorer parts of the world have shown the obvious lacunae that these inventions will not help the people to feed themselves. Yet the part of industry and press that supports these new developments continues on their claim that the new rice would one day help in feeding the poorer parts of the world. (Biohazards: The Next Generation?

There is a wide variety of such products and that includes salmon which grow twice as fast as the regular salmon, but nobody is thinking of the consequences when these fish will escape from the farms where they are being cultivated. Some types of plants like poplar, eucalyptus and pine are being modified so that their rate of growth increases and are able to stop reacting from high doses of herbicides. This will help the plants from being converted more easily for paper pulp. There are many efforts to develop bananas that may be useful for giving vaccines to individuals, and many other such experiments are still going on. This sort of results are leading companies like Monsanto, DuPont and Dow to start finding new methods of reaching the components of vaccines, antibodies for human diseases and different types of proteins to be used in industry through tobacco, corn and potato plants. (Biohazards: The Next Generation?)

Another company based in Texas called ProdiGene is collaborating with Stauffer seeds. They are trying to develop genetically engineered plants that will have eleven different proteins in them for extraction and commercial use. This type of activities is leading to a situation where general human beings are increasingly worried by the high level of activity in biology. The results of this research are unknown and the by-products may be dangerous for humans. Plants are being stimulated for production of blood coagulants, proteases and protease inhibitors, neurologically active proteins, growth promoters and enzymes. These are able to change the structure and ways of operation of important biologically active compounds. There are also attempts for production of monoclonal and viral surface proteins that are used for vaccination. When these types of products are released in large scale some people may react with allergic or autoimmune reactions.

Even the developments are not immediately announced by the researchers, and there have been reports that glucuronidase was produced by Stauffer in 2000, while they have been supplying for a number of years. This is an enzyme which helps in dissolving normally irritant molecules through a biochemical reaction. The facility of solution helps in the process of detoxification and removal of different compounds which are quite different in nature like hormones, antibiotics and opiates. Due to the availability of this enzyme, the regular toxins can move out from the molecule that binds them together, and this action stops them from being removed properly from the body. Thus while small quantities of these compounds may be useful for certain conditions of human beings, their presence in large quantities in the open atmosphere may result only in unknown effects on the average human. (Biohazards: The Next Generation?)