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Research Paper for ENGL 135
Professor Krivokuca DeVry University
April 24, 2013
Genetic Engineering, Solving World Problems
Can you imagine a four year old girl; her name is Elli, being awakened from the sounds and pains of her grumbling stomach? Her cries are answered as her mother comes in, picks her up and tries to sooth and comfort her. However, what this four year old girl needs, her mother cannot provide—food. It has been several days since their last meal. Her mother prays that she will be able to find some food today, a whole meal or just some discarded scraps out of someone’s trash bin to quill Elli’s hunger. Even if her mother does find some food to feed her, she may not be able to keep it down as she contracted Escherichia coli (E. Coli) from the polluted water she has been drinking (World Health Organization, 2013). Elli just celebrated her fourth birthday (if you can call it a celebration) as she weighed in at eighteen pounds, far below the normal weight of a four year old girl—30 pounds, according to MD-Health (2013). All her rib bones and tiny muscles are readily visible, and some say she looks like a walking skeleton that just swallowed a soccer ball. Elli’s stomach started bloating just three days ago as her body slowly dies from the lack of food. Her eyes, big as quarters, emptily stare out into the world she has known only for a short time. Soon, without food and clean drinking water, her body will shut down as she passes away. This is not a far-fetched story, but one that can be seen in every corner of this world. Millions of people die each year from starvation and polluted drinking water, but these world problems can be solved if scientists were given the green light by society to genetically engineer plants and animals.
Problems
Starvation, “suffering or death caused by hunger,” as defined by Oxford dictionaries (2013) kills millions of children and
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