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Explore the latest developments in genetic engineering, such as transgenic plants for agricultural efficiency and livestock modifications for health benefits. Delve into the ethical dilemmas surrounding genetic manipulation. Discover how genetic engineering can lead to medical breakthroughs while also raising ethical questions from various viewpoints.
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Genetic Engineering By: Leah Palmquist
Genetic Engineering: any alteration of genetic material, to make an organism capable of producing new substances or performing new functions. • Transgenic: of, pertaining to, or containing a gene or genes transferred from another species
Plants- Economic Efficiency in Agriculture • Corn - Key material for a variety of processed foods - Major animal feed - In growing demand to make ethanol for use in alternative fuels - Biotech companies are working to create a drought- resistant strain of corn
Plants- Increased Nutritional Value • Rice • 400 million people in the world are effected by vitamin A deficiency • Transgenic strain of rice produces an enzyme which results in increased synthesis of vitamin A • Genes from the common daffodil and bacterium Erwinia uredovora
Use of Genetic Modification in Livestock • Cows • Milk with specific characteristics to supply population deficiencies * High β-caesin levels - cheese production * lactose-free milk - lactose intolerant * milk without lactoglobulin - allergenic consumers * human lactoferrin protein - newborns
Modeling for Human Disease • Fragile X syndrome • Effects 100,000 people in the United States • Currently no treatment available • Symptoms include mental retardation, epilepsy and abnormal body growth • Results from the silencing of one specific gene • Genetically Engineered mice were used as test subjects • A drug was found which corrected many symptoms
Ethical Questions • Slippery Slope argument • Christian Standpoint • Essentialist View • Evolutionary view
Christian Standpoint • God is the creator of each individual, who he made in his own image. Genetic engineering is seen by many Christians as “playing God” • So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. Genesis 1:27
Essentialist View vs Evolutionary View • Essentialist view: Humans are special, and have the ability to suffer and feel pain while animals do not. • Evolutionary View: We are not respecting the animals from which we descended