The Pros And Cons Of Genetic Engineering

Gurpuneet Bassi

Professor Modzelewski

English 101

December 3rd, 2017

Genetic Engineering:

Genetic engineering is a powerful and potentially very dangerous tool. To rearrange and change the sequence of nucleotides of the DNA that code for the structure of a complex living organism, can partake in extremely negative effects, although the potential benefits can be extremely beneficial. Before advances in genetic applications, gene therapy was not very popular and genetic imperfections or diseases were always hereditary, afflicting future generations. “Genetic engineering is the manipulation of an organism's genome through biotechnology or modern molecular techniques. It is also called genetic modification, although that term is understood by scientists

The debate on whether or not genetic engineering is viable has ramped up in the past few years. It has both positive and negative effects. The positive effects include a seemingly “perfect being”, more longevity for life forms, and more resources. The negative effects include the loss of natural variation in the world, various unknown functions of genes we do not know, and the long-term effects of genetic engineering which we do not know of yet.

In today`s genetical engineering you can even remove a faulty gene and replace it with a working gene that provides the function that the cells are lacking. Although these techniques are starting to become available, they are still in their investigational stages. Somatic cell therapy, for example, uses faulty genes to target the affected areas for genetic treatment. “Somatic gene therapy is the transfer of genes into the somatic cells of the patient, such as cells of the bone marrow, and hence the new DNA does not enter the eggs or sperm. The genes transferred are usually normal alleles that could ‘correct’ the mutant or disease alleles of the recipient.” (open.edu). The somatic cell therapy is