Genetic Modification: Good or Bad
Jackson May
Mr. Duplessis
Biology I Honors/ P6
20 February 2013
Genetic Engineering Genetic engineering has a prospect of success, yet hasn’t shown many results. The only major plus to genetic engineering is insulin which helps out diabetics worldwide. Yet there are a ton of drawbacks from genetic engineering. Genetically modified foods have a possibility of creating new allergens, and cloning animals and plants would make them genetically similar creating a greater risk for disease. In my opinion, it is immoral for scientists to be able to change people’s hair color, or other cosmetic things. In Matthew 15:13, Jesus says, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be rooted up (16 Bible Verses about Genetic Engineering).” Genetic Engineering not only has possible harmful outcomes, but, in my opinion, is morally wrong. However, I think that for health reasons genetic engineering is beneficial. For example, genetic engineering was used to produce insulin which keeps millions of American diabetics alive. Multiple times in the Bible God talks about how he knew us in the womb and he made us perfectly. I think this would also apply to today in that we should not modify our hair/eye color. God could not have addressed genetic engineering specifically in the Bible thousands of years ago, because the prophets who wrote the Bible did not have that technology available at the time.
In September of 1999, Jesse Gelsinger was treated at University of Pennsylvania for an inherited enzyme deficiency. She suffered an extreme immune reaction and died 4 days after the gene therapy treatment. After several days, the researchers still had no idea what went wrong. That is why genetic engineering should not be used for anything other than curing fatal diseases. Dr. Ray Bohlin says, “So far, few genes have only a single application in the body. Most genes are found to have multiple effects, sometimes in different tissues. Therefore, to engineer a gene for
Mr. Duplessis
Biology I Honors/ P6
20 February 2013
Genetic Engineering Genetic engineering has a prospect of success, yet hasn’t shown many results. The only major plus to genetic engineering is insulin which helps out diabetics worldwide. Yet there are a ton of drawbacks from genetic engineering. Genetically modified foods have a possibility of creating new allergens, and cloning animals and plants would make them genetically similar creating a greater risk for disease. In my opinion, it is immoral for scientists to be able to change people’s hair color, or other cosmetic things. In Matthew 15:13, Jesus says, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be rooted up (16 Bible Verses about Genetic Engineering).” Genetic Engineering not only has possible harmful outcomes, but, in my opinion, is morally wrong. However, I think that for health reasons genetic engineering is beneficial. For example, genetic engineering was used to produce insulin which keeps millions of American diabetics alive. Multiple times in the Bible God talks about how he knew us in the womb and he made us perfectly. I think this would also apply to today in that we should not modify our hair/eye color. God could not have addressed genetic engineering specifically in the Bible thousands of years ago, because the prophets who wrote the Bible did not have that technology available at the time.
In September of 1999, Jesse Gelsinger was treated at University of Pennsylvania for an inherited enzyme deficiency. She suffered an extreme immune reaction and died 4 days after the gene therapy treatment. After several days, the researchers still had no idea what went wrong. That is why genetic engineering should not be used for anything other than curing fatal diseases. Dr. Ray Bohlin says, “So far, few genes have only a single application in the body. Most genes are found to have multiple effects, sometimes in different tissues. Therefore, to engineer a gene for