Hybridization- crossing different traits to bring the best of organisms into one. For example crossing disease resistance of one plant with the food-producing capacity of another to produce a superior plant. 3)Cloning is the process of taking a single cell from an adult organism to recreate another genetically identical organism. 4)DNA fingerprinting is developed by molecular biology; it analyzes unique sections made up of a variety of DNA band. DNA fingerprinting is a powerful and crucial tool that can determine a person’s identity.
Genetic screening definitely has its benefits, allowing you to possibly pre-determine future diseases in a child. But there are also many risks. Such as a endorsed miscarriage because amniotic fluid or tissue from around the fetus is needed for the test. The test results only come back if your child is more likely than not to have a disease, the percentage could still be small, but a parent may panic and terminate the pregnancy. The child could have been perfectly healthy, but the test showed traces of a disease in their gene pool.
Gene therapy is the use of DNA as a pharmaceutical agent to treat disease. It originates its name from the idea that DNA can be used to enhance or alter genes within an individual's cells as a therapy to treat disease. PGD has many advantages - being able to test for more than 1,000 genetic conditions including Cystic fibrosis, Huntington's disease, Sickle-cell anaemia, Tay-Sachs disease and Down syndrome. This allows doctors to examine embryonic cells for certain genetic and chromosomal disorders and lets parents make implantation decisions based on the results Adults who know that they are carriers of a genetic disorder can undergo PGD to ensure their children won’t inherit the disorder meaning that if the disease you carry requires treatment throughout the course of your life, it may save you a small fortune because even though it costs a lot to have the PGD test it will save you a great deal in the long term. Parents can focus on specific areas of DNA involved in any conditions the parents may have doubts about.
All scientific progress has both advantages and disadvantages. Selective breeding can be beneficial to the animals if, for example, scientists attempt to eliminate a certain disease by breeding the individual animals with the best resistance to it. More often, though, we breed for our benefit rather than theirs - e.g. cattle with more meat and higher milk production, chickens which lay more eggs, and so on. However, sometimes they are bred for appearance purposes only, this could be harmful.
Allison Maio Designer Babies Two million years of human evolution has led to the types of humans we see today. Everywhere around us are humans that are very different from each other with imperfections. On a not too distant horizon, advances in biotechnology will allow scientist to engineer the specific genetic makeup of our children. The term 'designer baby' made its entry into the Oxford English Dictionary in 2004, where it is defined as "a baby whose genetic makeup has been artificially selected by genetic engineering, combined with in vitro fertilization to ensure the presence or absence of particular genes or characteristics. My concern is the altering of embryos would destroy what it means to be human.
Color of eyes, straight or curly hair, pigmentation of the skin and certain diseases are all a function of the genes we inherit. Other physical characteristics, if not determined, appear to be at least strongly influenced by the genetic make-up of our biological parents. Those who adopt an extreme heredity position are known as nativists. Their basic assumption is that the characteristics of the human species as a whole are a product of evolution, and that individual differences are due to each person’s unique genetic code. Characteristics and differences that are not observable at birth, but which emerge later in life, are regarded as the product of maturation.
The effect of actually doing something like this would be unethical, possibly dangerous to the baby itself, and potentially causing harm to society. Genetically modifying a baby is done by pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD). PGD is done by taking an egg from a female and injecting the male’s sperm into it, all of this is done in a laboratory. They let the fertilized egg grow for a few days and then embryologists’ (some that works with embryos, eggs, and sperm) removes one of the cells and test it for diseases, in which case if there is any it can be removed. PGD is beneficial to people with a long history of certain diseases but what is stopping people of from using it in a non-beneficial way?
Although, there are many ethical issues surrounding transgenesis, these genetically altered animals are used to improve the human condition and thwart disease. What is a transgenic animal? A transgenic animal is an animal that carries a foreign gene that has been deliberately inserted into its DNA. By using the recombinant DNA methodology, the foreign gene is constructed, thus creating an animal with an enhanced gene structure suited for a specific purpose. With this supplementary gene, the “DNA of the host and [can be] be expressed correctly by the cells of the host” (Oriens, 102).
As the statistics indicate animal testing is dangerous and harmful, but medical research must continue. Supporters of animal testing argue that if animal testing never existed or was eliminated, that many of the medications and medical procedures used today would not be available and the development of future medicine and treatments would be extremely limited. These supporters argue that humans have benefited from the developments that stem from animal testing for many years. Also, Researchers and Scientist claim that testing is justified because it assists in discovering ways to help people and animals for the future. Surgery on animals has assisted in developing organ transplant and open-heart surgery techniques.
Is Genetic Engineering ethically right? Genetic engineering is the alteration of genetic code by artificial means and is therefore different from traditional selective breeding because scientists have discovered how to move pieces of genetic material from one species to another. There is no limit in theory to the potential of genetic engineering and it has given us the power to alter the very basis of life on earth. Ethical questions about genetic engineering have been raised since the 1970’s both about the process and the result, as it has few limits except our imagination and our moral or ethical code (Global change 2012). Ethics is the study of morality, what is good or bad, right or wrong.