Genetic Engineering
-- not everything is perfect
Genetic engineering promises much in the fields, animal husbandry, food crops.
If we take genetically
modified food, especially plants, we can improve crop fields for example.
It is all too easy that we forget about the risks. The risks are great.
Genetics are experimenting with the substance of life and the ultimate price
could be the life itself.
Although I am not in favor of genetic engineering, there are several arguments for and against it.
Some people say that
genetic engineering allows scientists to save endangered species from becoming
extinct.
However I don't agree. I think that the society itself should prevent their
extinction from happening in the first place. They should protect the
environment in which those animals live.
Scientists even could
recreate a "near-perfect" human being by eliminating life threatening inherited
diseases and creating a perfect physical being.
But then again we would have a future world, where every human being would look
the same and there would be no variety.
We would end up increasing the average life span of the people and thereby
creating an imbalance between the amount of food available and the world
population.
This could create a food shortage or even a famine.
Even some people say that
genes exist that turn people into criminals.
It would be able to correct these anti-social genes that turn people into
criminals, but however the natural balance of jobs in society would not be
balanced and some other negative trait would probably take over.
I also think that the scientists don't know much about the long term effects. Experiments within the laboratory are limited to provide conclusive results even though many thousands of experiments have been made. The only true experiment is out in the wild, by which time we may be too late as we are experimenting with the entire world ecosystem.
It takes not much DNA to flip species over into something else, we cannot say as we lack sufficient data. Genetic engineering is a world of ignorance. There is far too little we know.
