michaeljohn

If you enjoy reading, pick up a copy of "When the Wind Blows" by James Patterson. It purports that the fictional characters depicted within are not that far from creation in the future. A sequel is out now as well... Two of his books have been made into movies "Kiss The Girls" and "Along Came a Spider". All quick reads. The Dr. Detective Alex Cross books are fantastic.

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man boobs

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My sister is going into genetic engineering... I never really discussed it with her but that does kind of bother me. There is wayyy too many oppurtunities for absolutely abhorrent evils to come from it. In my opinion there should be some sort of international convention to draft a code of ethics for this branch of science, and make scientists who break this code international criminals.

Esco

Very good suggestion. The international community has to establish these agreed upon ethics ... and they must all agree that those that do not comply be punished.

Question: Wasn't there something in place with the UN? I know the UN has something in place with cloning ... but does that cover all genetic "manipulation" and engineering?

priam

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What form could that possible punishment take and how would that be enforced?

Genetic engineering has a long history and in a sense plant breeders have been doing it for hundreds of years, all be it not at the gene level. It is very difficult to have a reasoned debate as there is a tendency for people to use emotive language when this subject is raised the level of understanding among the general public of the issues involved is not very high (myself included), certainly it is too important a subject to be left to the scientific community or politicians alone, what is needed is a greater level of understanding of the real issues and less of the frankenstien horror stories of the more lurid tabloid press.

ter_scotland

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It would be cool to be able to have many clones of myself and raise them as my minions

TheSponge

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I feel it shouldn't be used at all, not even to save someone's life. Sometimes it's just necessary for some individuals to die sooner than others, that is just a part of life for all living things.

Indigenous

I think it could be a great revolution as far as medical technology goes. Many lives could not only be saved, but bettered.

However the misuse of that technology is what scares me. I don't think it too far fetched to be worried about genetic experiments to create supersoldiers, etc.

If it hasn't been attempted already.

Jase

This has already been going on for years. It could also be a new form of natual selection.

Rx7s1

I think a lot of you people are confusing genetic engineering with medical biotechnology -they are two separate things.

Genetic engineering is manipulating the structure of nucleic acids (not necessarily genes either) to increase, decrease or generally alter the levels or types of products produced (ie. proteins, DNA structure, tRNA etc) - sorry if I am too technical.

Medical biotechnology is using molecular biological techniques to alter the natural progression of nature for (usually) the betterment of manking and civilization in general.

There are definitely things that I wouldn't agree to. I am not for selective genetic engineering of embryos, unless it is genetic therapy to repair/remove genes for diseases (repairing at least one of the two faulty genes that create cystic fibrosis for example). I do not believe it is right to make 'designer babies'.

There is a lot of good that will come from medical biotechnology though. Therapeutic cloning and embryonic stem cell injections are two such technologies that could change the face of medicine as we know it. A recent development in Stem cell research here in Melbourne has brought a line of 1,000,000+ embryonic stem cells from a culture from an embryo. These stem cells are precursor cells, and have not differentiated into a specific purpose yet (ie. they can become any cells at all - except sex cells (sperm and eggs)). Tests have proven that injections of embryonic stem cells into damaged tissue can repair and even completely heal injuries - such as a broken spine causing quadriplegia!).

The other issue here is whether it is 'right' to use human embryos. Well, the research has been legalised (at least here in Australia) and positive results are coming forward. When does an embryo become a life? Well, an organism (any animal, plant etc). is not considered an organism until it has cells, tissues and organs also. The embryos used in this research only have a small number of cells - much less than is required to form organs, or even tissues in most cases.

To say that it is wrong to 'destroy' the 'possible' life of an embryo is silly. Is it wrong to spit saliva that contains epithelial cells from your cheek? After all, those cells could have been used to inject into a vacuum-cleared egg and 'could' have grown into a clone of you!

There is always the thought that something 'could have happened'. The fact is - it didn't. And it won't. Those embryos are not humans. They are not even living - at least no more than any other cells individually. We have no problem giving blood - white blood cells could also be used to clone..... but they are not. Is this killing potential life? Every time we men ejaculate while wearing a condom or whilst inside our female partner who is taking 'the pill' are we wasting a 'potential life'? Most of us have no problem doing this and the thought doesn't even cross our minds....

I don't expect everyone to share the same beliefs with me, but please try to understand that we scientist who are researching the uses of such techologies are doing it for the betterment of mankind and we believe we are doing the right thing.

Cheers.

Car Enthusiast

priam and rx7s1's posts are very intelligent, kudos to you boys

and what everyone doesn't understand, the technology is there, it will not be stopped now, someone somewhere is going to clone someone someday, and gene therapy will be used, try to tell someone with a life threatening disease to not use gene therapy to save their own life, it doesn't matter what we think this new wave of biotec will be used, it just depends on when people will get over their fears about the scifi things of this to help people, and there will be misuses of this technology just as there have been misuses of other things in history, so get ready for all the reprucusions of what is to come

mynutzonurchin

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Kudos to you my friend. It's a shame that we here in the states have a facist bible-thumping neo-nazi of a president in "Dubya" who has outlawed stem cell research, and thus has put the U.S. ten years behind the rest of the world in stem cell research advances (not to mention twenty years behind the rest of the world in other areas... i.e. abortion rights, censorship, national debt, etc.)

Fuck the FCC, George Bush Jr, GB Sr, fuckin Barbara Bush, and fucking Millie the White House dog for that matter!

Cthulhu

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That reminds me of a funny quote: "Don't compare Hitler to George W. Bush! Hitler was a decorated front-line officer!"

Ahem, back on topic...

Personally, I believe that genetic engineering should most definitely be used. It would provide wonderful new advances in medical technology, curing hundreds of debilitating diseases and disorders.

On the other hand, humans just cannot be trusted with the power over their species that they would wield with such a technology. It would cause innumerable problems for society, and could quite possibly destroy mankind.

I think that genetic engineering should be used, but only in extreme moderation.

silver77

The problem with medical science (well really, pretty much all higher sciences these days) is that they're reaching beyond our cultural morality... In general Western Society isn't ready to make 'God' decisions. In theory genetic manipulation is fine (IMO) but like anything, it's going to get abused by governments.

Daddys_Girl

I really don't know how I feel about this one...I think medically it could be invaluable to cure a sick person...but to just remake the human body over and over again...well it just goes against natural selection...I don't know...I see the good and the bad of it all.