Moral and ethical issues associated with recombinant technology Essay Example

Moral and ethical issues associated with recombinant technology Essay Example Moral and ethical issues associated with recombinant technology Essay Moral and ethical issues associated with recombinant technology Essay The ideal life for all human beings, where they could live without diseases, with plenty of food, comfortable enviroment and without any struggle for the facilities of life, may be called heaven, the concept of which is provided by all religions of the world. The present enviroment of human beings has been tremendously improved than the earlier civilizations due to a lot of scientific advancement and progress for human comforts. But the diseases and illnesses are still making life problematic for the human race. Russo and cove (ref no 3) stated that there are more than 2000 different genetic diseases causing the sufferings of humans. Some of these genetically inherited disease commonly observed are downs syndrome, cancer, schizophrenia and colour-blindness. The science of genetic engineering may perform wonderful miracles to overcome these diseases in the humans and will cause the revolution in maintaining the health, according to the concept of heaven. This idea provides the moral obligations and ethical concepts for the promotion of genetic engineering researches. The genetical engineering can be a source to produce genetically modified animals to obtain better quality of meat and milk, and genetically modified plants to obtain better agricultural products. The branch of genetically engineering known as plant biotechnology can be useful in plants breeders to improve the crops yield, to provide resistance against diseases, resistance to unfavourable conditions like draught and frost, to enable plants to produce oil substitution for the fossil fuels to reduce the amount of chemicals used by farmers to grow the crops and improve the quality of food by increasing nutritional values and protecting animals and humans from the diseases.(ref no 2) The plants tissue culture is the cultivation of plant tissues on specially formulated nutrients enriched media. They can grow at room temperature in very small places. The genetic engineering is useful to produce vegetables such as tomatoes, potatoes etc which can retain their quality and taste for a longer period of time. (ref no 6) The mapping of chromosomes would be a great achievement for identifying the precise location of every gene and will develop new gene therapy treatments (ref no 2) and most likely the hospitals will not need so many medicines used today. The genetic engineering may produce several enzymes prepared in the human body and may be useful for use in the deficiency of these enzyme needed by the human body such as insulin very use full for the human body. (ref no 5) The main disadvantages of the gene technology may be the mutation of transgressive bacteria or the viruses escaping from the genetically modified crops, such as weeds etc. The setting up of evolutionary process of the transgressive organisms that could harm the enviroment population of transgenic organisms could upset the balance of nature, objections to specific transgressive organisms by religious groups and the gene screening could lead to the discrimination against individuals.(ref no 2) The moral and ethical issues of recombinant technology worry a lot about tampering with genes. We have the power to create the new life forms with genetic engineering but we dont know what the hidden costs of interfering with evolution might be, so far no harm seems to have come from releasing genetically manipulated organisms (gmos) into the enviroment. These have been mainly microbes designed to protect plants from diseases and forests from damage. Gmos have marker gene engineered in their genome so their spread can easily be tackled. This idea was given by aldridge. (ref no 1) But however safe Gmos turn out to be there are still difficult ethical problems to be faced. The product of genetic engineering is new life forms but no one is really sure that they can or should be patented. The first patented life form was the oncomouse produced at Harvard University. Patenting the Harvard mouse has caused the storm of controversy and confusion in Europe, which is causing investors to hold back from biotechnology. The attempt by some USA scientists to patent human genes the result of their work on human genomes has led to similar difficulties Many people say that the whole issue of patenting gives the genetic engineering a poor public image and undermines human dignity.(ref no 1) There is also an issue of gene plunder to be considered. Once the genes of useful plants are taken from the developing countries these could be cloned in the cells and products made in western countries. This could damage the income from the cash crops such as coffee in the countries where these plants were originated. (ref no 1) Now a days the pigs heart are transplanted into humans that can cause different genetic diseases in humans from the pigs and could have very dangerous effects on the human society. (ref no 7) It is interesting to discuss the ethics of reproductive human cloning. The first cloned child would be human experiment. They would be biological experiments with grave risks of physical and mental genetic deformity. They would be experiments on human identity, they would be experiments in genetic programming and design, and they would be experiments in family and social life confusing the relationships with in the family and between the generations. A cloned child will be at risk of psychic and social harm. He may suffer confusion of social identity in society and may become dangerous for the human society. (ref no 3) The history of eugenics is interesting as this movement began in late 1800 s the eugenic movement can be revived due to genetic inventions and can be very dangerous to the nation so called inferior genes and may cause a disaster for the future of human civilisation. (ref no 4) The progress in the science of genetic technology can be used for better living of human beings against most of the diseases and may be called a blessing for humans. on the other hand gene technology can also be used as a powerful weapon to eradicate less powerful ethnic groups in several ways therefore it is very important that all the universities and colleges and educational institutes of the world must especially teach moral and ethical values to the scientists to use genetic technology as a blessing rather than disguise.