Pro Genetic Engineering Benefits

The Medical Benefits of Genetic Engineering

“Only 0.2% of all human DNA differs between individuals; in other words, people are 99.8% the same, and all the vast differences between people are a product of just 1/500th of the total DNA” (“Genetic Engineering”). The differences that occur because of this miniscule amount of DNA can have devastating effects as well as beneficial effects. As a result of the discovery of these differences, scientists and researchers have found a way to manipulate and apply the DNA in a way as to create revolutionary new treatments for use in the medical field. One treatment that has been discovered is gene therapy, which involves the use of gene-splicing in order to take a gene from another human or organism and

Through trial and error, they have developed a cocktail of genes that can transform adult human skin cells (from you and me) into cells closely resembling embryonic stem cells. But make no mistake – these are not embryonic stem cells. They are induced pluripotent stem cells. The study of these cells is in its infancy. The hope is that induced pluripotent cells could be developed from individuals who have genetic disorders like juvenile diabetes, Parkinson’s and muscle dystrophy. This is evidence that the controversy over stem cells is not well founded and should not affect research because these new discoveries have been made, but have been hindered by the controversy. Without the hindrance of this research more could be learned and treatments could be further developed. The future of genetic engineering is very promising but is being restricted because people refuse to take in all of the

One point against this form of research is that humans are trying to control nature and they do not fully understand what they are doing or the potential consequences. If the transplantation of DNA in nature is not in a specified pattern, but is completely random, and by scientists and researchers using technology to transplant genes they are simply increasing the rate and the chance of a certain change taking place and are simply acting as a catalyst. One place that we can see mutations naturally occur is in our own cells; “every time one of our cells duplicates itself, a couple hundred DNA mutations occur” (Coker, 21). The forty-fourth president of the United States of America, Barack Obama, weighed in on this topic of controversy, “when government fails to make these investments, opportunities are missed. Promising avenues go unexplored” (Obama, 58-59). This shows that the leader of our nation realizes the potential of this research and is willing to take the risks to further pursue this research because of its future