ETHICS

Ethical Issues in Genetic Engineering

Ethical Issues in Genetic Engineering

Introduction

Genetic engineering is similar to biotechnology in that there is an alteration of an organism's characteristics. In contrast to biotechnology, the process of genetic engineering denotes the intentional alteration of the actual DNA by using applications of new scientific technology that make changes at a molecular level. This means that a change is made in the actual genetic constitution of a cell by introducing, modifying, or eliminating specific genes by applying modern molecular-biologic techniques (Yount, 2002, pp. 123).

Another distinction is that biotechnology has traditionally been applied to agriculture for improving food products and livestock, whereas genetic engineering has more applications in medicine and anthropology. However, modern biotechnology has integrated genetic-engineering techniques, as opposed to just utilizing breeding strategies to achieve those improvements. Due to the fact that biotechnology currently applies genetic-engineering techniques, the two terms are now frequently used interchangeably.

Discussion

Is Genetic Engineering ethically right?

Technologies that contribute to the overall practice of synthetic biology themselves have precipitated concern or controversy. The de novo synthesis of DNA, sometimes called synthetic genomics, has been used to construct “from scratch” viruses, genes, and complete genomes of a variety of organisms. Additionally, synthetic biology uses the complete suite of standard recombinant DNA technologies. Those technologies themselves have been used for sometimes controversial applications, such as in genetically modifying food crops. In this way, synthetic biology is contentious both because of the processes involved and the products produced.

Many researchers, both synthetic biologists and engineers, as well as social science and humanities researchers, have looked at aspects of synthetic biology and synthetic genomics to try to understand if, and how this research and its applications differ from previously introduced biotechnologies with respect to safety, the need for governance, and societal impacts.

Further, concerns about intellectual property rights, particularly as they relate ...