Genetic Engineering: savior or disaster?

Recently at school I watched a video in my science class. We've been studying genetics for a while now and it's so interesting. Wrapping your head around everything we can do is hard to understand, but it's amazing once you start to understand it, to see what we can create and how we work. The video is about Genetic Engineering; where organisms have the ability to be modified through a process we use, by altering the genes in the cells of those organisms. Although this video my class watched was very interesting, I however found some of the things extremely disturbing. I decided to investigate it further when I got home, and now, my view of the video and this whole process is swinging in between the lines of wrong and right. So I thought I should share my thoughts and also get you thinking- are we using genetic engineering for the right or wrong reasons?

Before I start I probably should define what a 'gene' is for those who don't know:

Genes are made up of DNA (found in the nucleus of all our cells), and a gene acts as instructions to make molecules called proteins.

Here are some examples of genetic engineering:

Belgium Blue Bull

This bull has been bred through a process called 'selective breeding'. This process is used by farmers to enhance a desirable characteristic- basically by managing the sex of the animal. Take the above bull for example: the desired characteristic in this bull is the amount of muscle or meat on its body. Farmers will take the sperm from one of these animals, and analyse it; looking for the particular gene they want- a gene that regulates the growth of muscle in cattle. These cows have been selectively bred from cattle that contain a copy of this gene that doesn't work. Therefore, as a result, the cow's muscles are much larger than regularly bred cattle.

Now, although this selectively bred bull is actually all natural (as no steroids have been injected) there's nothing technically wrong with this process. But to me, this process is disgusting. For starters; to put an animal through this is not right- they are how they are supposed to be. Any altering of the animal's genetic information may harm it. For instance; these Belgium Bulls weigh over a ton. This can affect the reproduction of the animal (it needs help from farmers to get up on a female cow), it may cause harm to the bone structure of the animal, and altogether the animal is probably more than likely uncomfortable due to its size. And what exactly are the reasons behind this? Because our world revolves around money. Bigger cow = more meat = more food on the shelves = more money for the farmers who support this cause.

Featherless Chickens

 These chickens are being produced by Professor Avigdor Cahener- a man who is solving a problem that could be prevented in the first place. These chickens have been made to reproduce without the gene to make feathers. Why? Chickens are bred to grow as fast and fat as possible. Because most chickens are kept in caged environments, they are suffering from overheating. Their heart rate can reach 300 b/pm and they find it very hard to cool down. Because of their feathers- chickens can't dissipate the heat (as Olivia Judson gave the example of wearing a fur coat in the Sahara Desert). Professor Cahaner came up with the solution of reproducing chickens without the gene that allows them to grow feathers, therefore allowing the chicken to cool down in such environments. However, he is only fixing a problem that could be prevented to start off with. If the chickens weren't in caged environments, they wouldn't be overheating. Free range chickens would not have this problem... But hey, our industries main priority is money right? So chickens will continue to live in cadged environments because they produce the $$$.

But then we get to the stage in the video of the real benefits of genetic engineering- to the point that this kind of science and knowledge could save our lives:

 Transgenics: Glow in the dark rabbits

Dr Louis- Marie Houdebine came up with the idea of the 'green glow in the dark rabbit' by a thing called transgenics. Transgenics is the process in which a gene from one organism is transferred and inserted into the other. For this rabbit, Dr Houdebine found the gene in a jellyfish that enabled them to glow in the dark, and inserted that gene into bacteria. As the bacteria reproduce, the gene is multiplied- then being inserted into the fertilised egg of a rabbit. The egg is then transferred into the mother giving birth, and the gene replicates itself into every cell of the offspring. As this gene was passed onto the offspring, the newly born bunnies, once in darkness were glowing green

This experiment has many benefits to it such as:

• These bunnies can be bred to help medical researchers track the movement of cells.
• Scientists can use the gene to work out where cells go after an organ transplant.
• It could help treat problems like bone disease or blindness.

Genetic modification: Vitamin A deficiency

Genetic modification has the possibility to save lives- but we are not allowed to use it... in this case at least. Researchers have been studying how genetic modification can in fact cure diseases by changing or adding genes into a specific organism. Vitamin A deficiency kills around 2.5 million people a year. That's  equivilant to a tsunami every month, or a 9/11 every 12 hours. As half the world's population gets almost all their nutrition from rice, a lot of these people are susceptible to the disease. Rice does not have a chemical called carotenoids- which is the chemical that gives colour to vegetables. Our bodies use carotenoids to make vitamin A. Vitamin A deficiency suppresses the immune system, but even before that, it makes you blind. Wealthy people can survive this disease because of the resources they have, but for those who live off rice, are more likely to die from it. Researches tried to insert genes that produce vitamin A into rice, and succeeded, with a total of 3 genes that could be inserted into the rice. Because the genes produced vitamin A, they had the chemical carotenoids in them, making the newly modified rice yellow- something they call golden rice.

This scientific break through has the ability to save millions of lives each year, yet the rice is not allowed out of confinement and examination. My opinion is simple- what a waste. How many deaths and diseases is it going to take to get people to understand how this research can save lives? Why are we using this technology for the wrong reasons? Making money out of it genetic engineering, instead of saving lives is not right. Something or someone needs to wake up and face the real problems in our society.

For those who want to watch this video, here it is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyLLRjB3NWk

What's your opinion?

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