Most Significant Advancement's

¶ … Medical Advancements in Medicine and Health Write a three-page paper on what you believe is the most significant medical advancement (s) in medicine and health and support your argument. Genetic engineering is one of the most significant medical advancements of the century and will have a major impact on medicine, health, politics and church and state relationships. Genetic engineering. A controversial issue or a blessing in disguise? The Human Genome Project (HGP), sponsored in the United States has created the field of genomics --understanding genetic material on a large scale.

But what actually is genetic engineering? Genetic engineering in theory, allows cells to grow in a petri dish, with the end result of creating the type of genetic alteration you want. Imagine the medical ramifications of being able to genetically create the characteristics we want in a species. Think of the benefits to mankind and the enhancements that would be made to modern medicine. In principle, the mixing of genes would occur through cloning techniques just as it does during sexual reproduction.

Contrary to scientists' expectations, the birth of Dolly shows it is possible to reprogram the cell of an adult (or at least its genome) so that it begins development all over again. This newly discovered flexibility means it may one day be possible to reprogram skin or blood cells so that they grow into "spare part" tissues and organs, rather than whole organisms. But the technical obstacles will be huge.1 Currently, because of ethical reasons, geneticists are concentrating on finding the causes of genetic diseases and then curing them.

It makes it easier to meddle with human and animal genes but is not necessarily genetic improvement, by itself. Genetic engineering can be a hit or miss methodology that sometimes works. Geneticists have wondered if cloning could be used to create a super race. Shades of Hitler or Mary Shelley's Frankenstein come to mind. In the wrong hands, who knows what kind of new species could be developed.

Could genetic engineering be used to save http://www.cdc.gov/genomics/infoendangeredspecies? But ethical questions arise when genetic engineering is discussed ever since November 25, 2001, when a Massachusetts research company announced it had cloned the first human embryo.

The announcement brought swift condemnation from the Vatican with the warning, "Notwithstanding the humanistic intents...this calls for a calm but resolute appraisal which shows the moral gravity of this project and calls for unequivocal condemnation." Researchers defended the development by saying they wanted to use the cloned embryos to harvest stem cells, rather than to create babies. Many scientists believe stem cells can be used to treat a wide range of diseases, including diabetes, strokes, cancer, AIDS and neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease.

President Bush also criticized the experiment, saying, "We should not as a society grow life to destroy it, and that's exactly what's taking place." But genetic engineering is a powerful medical advancement that can be used to diagnose and predict disease predisposition and susceptibility. All diseases have a genetic component, whether inherited or resulting from the body's response to environmental stresses.

The successes of the Human Genome Project (HGP) have even enabled researchers to pinpoint errors in genes -- the smallest units of heredity -- that cause or contribute to disease.2 The real news is that in the right hands, genetic engineering can be used to develop new ways to treat, cure, or even prevent the thousands of diseases. Today, biotech companies are designing diagnostic tests to detect "bad" genes that may cause particular diseases.

http://www.ornl.gov/hgmis/genetest.html Imagine the changes in medicine if geneticists could find and replace genes that cause illness and disease. The potential for using genes to treat disease, commonly known as gene therapy is the most exciting application of genetic engineering. This rapidly developing field holds great potential for treating or even curing genetic and acquired diseases, using normal genes to replace or supplement a defective gene.

What does that mean for mankind? For life expectancy? Are we trying to play God? Most members of the scientific and medical community would agree that this advancement is the biggest thing to come along in centuries. Humans could live extended lives, free from debilitating diseases and endangered species could be kept form becoming extinct. Imagine a technology that could preserve precious cells and use them to enhance life. According to Brigid Greenberg in her article, "Medical Strides Produce Ethical Quandries," cloning research has raised questions.

Two years ago, Scottish researchers cloned a sheep named Dolly. Last year, a physicist in Chicago said he would attempt to create the first human clone. Where does medical research go from here? Ethicists say it will continue to press the limits, prompting debates that will only get sharper.3 As for what the.