Question by Bethan R: What are some issues raised about genetic modification and cloning?
ethical or whatever, i dont realy understand try to keep it simple please =)
Best answer:
Answer by David V
it’s really just religious nuts saying we shouldnt be doing gods work. i respect their opinion, but there’s so much to gain by being able to, lets say, grow new liver cells from your own tissue to be able to replace damaged ones. frankly, if they dont like it they have the choice to refuse that kind of treatment. but they’d rather impose their opinions and stop things they think should remain in the hands of god.
What do you think? Answer below!
Actually in contrast to David, I have heard people say that religiously we should. Something about how God would want us to be as great as we can and if genetic engineering can do that then we should. So as you can see it is very controversial. It just depends on the viewpoints of the person, especially with cloning because in a sense the process of human cloning would kill a lot of human embryos or potential babies.
Okay this is a commonly misinterpreted topic. To clone just means to replicate something. Most molecular biology labs, including my own, use this process all the time in a procedure called PCR (polymerase chain reaction) which we use to amplify RNA (make more of a genetic material).
The second thing we use it for is to create an immortal cell from a single cell in a tissue or cell culture. Which allows us to make our sample as homogenous as possible (all the same), and helps in the production of antibodies and cancer testing (something I do in lab).
As an example: I might take a cell culture from a healthy patient. The cells are then screened for a particular antibody and that cell is made immortal through genetic modifications (gene regulation goes on in your body everyday by the way). The cell is then encouraged to proliferate (grow more of itself), producing identical clone cells all producing the same cytokines/antibodies (cytokines are a type of messenger telling other cells what to do). These cytokines/antibodies can then be collected and used against cancerous cells. It’s kind of a means of amplification to get more of something that is produced in very small amounts. It is also used to develop cell lines that are similar to human conditions so we can spare the use of animals or even human subjects.
More than likely you are surrounded by genetically modified products and you aren’t even aware of it. Vegetables are modified to be pest resistant and or produce larger fruit more frequently.
This isn’t something to necessarily fear, but it should be regulated. We have mapped the genome (genetic code) for several species but there are often interactions between genes that we still do not understand. Being in a molecular based lab, we use something called a KO murine animal all the time (KO means a gene has been knocked out or make inactive, and murine is either rats or mice). We do this to help map pathways that can lead to the prevention or even a cure to diseases that still are threats today.
As a scientist, I am of course biased, but I do believe in regulation of ethical issues. A hot topic a while back was stem cell use.. My thesis is the molecular pathways involved in a particular stem cell line and bone formation (which could cure osteoporosis and hypersensitivity immune responses such as rheumatoid arthritis). The stem cells in question come from bone, not embryos.. another common misconception is that all stem cells are from infants. More than anything I think people should be educated as to what the research really entails instead of believing whatever story the media has spun for ratings.