Question: Do you think Gene manipulation/engineering is ethical? ie. for sports, food, animal.
Keywords: ethics, genetic engineering
Comments
-
Here’s a great article that just got put up on the web that gives some info on it!
-
Thanks alot I recently had and assingment on genetic enginerring /testing and I found it really interesting 🙂
chris
Hi Chris. This is a very good question. I got my thinking cap on now!
People have been genetically manipulating dogs for hundreds of years. The dog breeds we have today are a product of gene manipulation. and nobody complains! I love dog and I’m not complaining here.
Gene manipulation for athletes I don’t like! Sports is all about practice and talent and passion. It would not be fair if some countries could afford to manipulate their athletes and constantly winning! Sports should be bringing people and countries together and athletes should just train their butts off and show us how amazing the natural human body really is 😀
The idea of gene manipulation to make some people smarter, I also don’t like! That raises the the issue of designing a small gene pool and people being clones of one another. How boring!!!!
Now gene manipulation for food, I am in favor of it. With a growing world population eventually our natural food supplies will be scary low. We need to have a backup plan. This plan may very well be in genetically manipulated foods. However, I will stress here that manipulated food needs to be controlled as we don’t want it to take over our natural habitats and risk potentially losing our native plants.
So in summary, I’m all for genetically manipulated food and I think its ethical. This food can keep people alive and fed and the animals make us happy, but I don’t like the idea of creating superhumans! Gene manipulating ourselves for sports reasons I don’t find ethical at all! Hope that makes sense. I’m curious, what is your take on it? 🙂
1
This is a great question Chris, and one that lots of people don’t understand and argue a LOT about all over the world!
Here is my take – and it’s important to remember that every answer for this questions will have that person’s personal opinion attached to it:
For food (including animals, fruit, fish etc.) there are lots of different types. Did you know that your canola cooking oil is genetically engineered? Did you know a lot of strawberries and tomatoes are too? There are LOTS of different types of genetically engineered foods and animals that people don’t know about! I think it’s fine. It is going to be very important to have it in the future for fish farming and foods to grow in places they normally wouldn’t with climate change. As long as it is carefully regulated, it is fine and an important technology to have!
For athletes, sports etc. I think it’s unethical. The whole point of sports is to prove your ability. What is the point of doing that if you can be altered to be better? It would just become a race to see who could do the most to themselves to win. The same goes for “designed” people, with traits like more muscles or something. That’s a BIG no no. We are here to be unique, and have plenty of technology to assist us in life without being being genetically engineered for cosmetic purposes!
1
Hi Chris, I think it is ok to improve food crops but I don’t think it should be use to make “super” animals or humans – only to treat diseases if we can find a way to
1
My response to this question is alway to flip the question around and ask ‘Is it ethical to have the ability to use genetic manipulation to solve problems and NOT use the technology?’
I use genetically modified animals everyday in my research and they help me discover new cures for nasty diseases. I also believe in GM foods as I think we are running out of agricultural land globally, so we need to use our talents to improve crop yields to feed the ever growing population of the planet effectively.
GM in sport? Hmmm….not really a fan as it benefits rich countries over poor countries in events like the Olympics. I think we are seeing the consequences of using medical biotech discoveries incorrectly in the AFL Essendon case at the moment!
1
Hey Chris!
Gene manipulation is a super grey area. We’ve been manipulating the genes of our food sources for ages, and GM food to help solve world hunger is definitely a good thing. Unfortunately, there is a line, in my opinion, when you start to engineer animals for food that can’t lead nice lives before they become our dinners. There are type of chickens in factory farms that have been genetic manipulated to be so big, they can’t even stand up on their own. That’s not ethical in my opinion.
So, I think we have a big responsibility to a) use the technology we’ve got to help as many people as possible but also b) keep in mind the effects that might have on the environment in the long run!
0