Posted: May 22nd, 2023

Genetic engineering is the amendment of the genetic composition of a particular organism

Genetic engineering is the amendment of the genetic composition of a particular organism or simply the adjustment of an organism’s transmissible matter in a bid to produce desirable characteristics (Starr, Evers, and Starr 190). It involves methods such as transgenesis, which employs lentiviruses’ capacity to relocate DNA or RNA materials to animal cells. Genetic engineers have been working to improve the quality and quantity of animal and plant production. The engineering involves itself more in prokaryotes, reproducing a variety of species using different strains in the hybridization process, and recombining various deoxyribonucleic acids (DNA) to produce quality species (Starr, Evers, and Starr 108).

There has been much controversy on the ethical issues that concern genetic engineering including questions of whether it is right to interfere with the creation and evolution process. Is it moral to change the genetic composition of an organism that cannot defend itself? Is it ethical to feed human beings with genetically modified organisms that are not clearly labeled? Is it moral to change the environment through genetic engineering? These ethical questions have triggered the minds of many people.

However, the major ethical concern about genetic engineering is on Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) and their impacts on human beings’ health, spirituality, environment, decision-making, and ability to choose what one wants in life. The argument is that since genetically modified organisms have altered genetic composition, they are likely to affect the organisms that consume them negatively. Genetic engineering produces specific genetically modified organisms compared to the use of mutagenesis (King 9).

The science does not result in a defined genetic composition of the resultant species. The process depends on the choice of engineering that is done on the genes ranging from gene alteration, gene insertion, or gene removal. In the process of creating these steady changes, organisms are exposed to various treatments that end up creating unspecific alterations. For instance, the engineer may choose to insert the required gene artificially into a virus or else decide to use a tiny syringe to pop in the DNA into the nucleus of the target organism using a gene gun. The process alters the peace of the host, for instance, a rat, a sheep, or even a pig, as it has no choice of rejecting regardless of the cost thereof since the engineers only focus on the intended results. This case is not ethical to many opponents of genetic engineering.

Another is that it is unethical to alter the genetic content of an organism to form elements that no one knows their advantages and their predispositions. The alterations in the genetic makeup may act as predisposing factors to diseases and other environmental factors. The use of selective production in plants and the adoption of somaclonal (differences seen in vegetation that have been formed via tissue culture) in animal reproduction have also been opposed on ethical grounds (Crevel 385).