Jordan Johnson

Professor Watson

ENGL 110C

04/ /2022

Genetic Modification  

If you could have changed one thing about yourself, what would it be? Your eye color? Your hair type? With genetic modification this very thing is possible and is already being done. Genetic modification has been around for thousands of years but just not in the way we think of it. For example, the corn we have today is genetically modified to have more kernels than from the corn hundreds of years ago. With the help of genetic modification we are able to make foods more fruitful for us and create vaccines, but it also comes with its fair share of ethical issues when it comes to genetically modifying animals/humans. 

So what exactly is genetic modification. In broad terms genetic modification is the process of altering the genetic makeup of an organism (Ross 1). But there are many different techniques to get that job done, which are different for plants and animals/humans. For plants, one of the earliest techniques used is through selective breeding. This is when one chooses a desired trait and breeds that trait over the years to make it prominent in the species, like in the corn example above. Another technique used for plants is Mutagenesis. This is when plant seeds are purposely exposed to chemicals or radiation in order to mutate the organisms. The offspring with the desired traits are then kept and bred further. Whenever you see the label GMO it means the food was genetically modified. But for the two techniques above, you won’t typically see this label put on the food. 

Now the techniques that do have this label, for plants at least, are RNA interference and transgenics. RNA interference is one of the modern methods of genetically modifying foods. With this process, individual unwanted genes are ‘silenced’ in the crop. When this happens, the unwanted traits of the crop are removed as well.  The last way crops are modified is through transgenics. This process happens when a gene from one species is introduced into another in order for the new crop to have a desired trait that it wouldn’t normally have. Scientists use these processes of GM in order for our crops to have an improved yield, resistance to insects and diseases, and even have an improved nutritional value.  

Just like with plants, the earliest form of genetically modifying animals is through selective/cross breeding. Dogs are known to be selectively bred, for example, pugs, with them being bred to have flat faces. Another GM process used for animals is gene subtraction. An example of this being used is in cattle. It is used to delete the myostatin gene, ‘poll gene for their horns, which negatively regulates muscle growth in order to increase muscle mass (Mattick 2). Finally one of the newest technologies used for genetic modification is called the CRISPR system, clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats, which is an acronym derived from the characteristics that were first noticed in strange repeated sequences in bacterial genomes (Mattick 1).

 CRISPR is a genome editing tool used to alter specific sequences of DNA in a cell. CRISPR has a multitude of uses that include treating diseases, correcting genetic defects and in plants to improve growth and resistance. The use of CRISPR for helping with genetic defects is called gene therapy. Gene therapy can help by altering the genes inside your body in order to treat disease. Some examples of diseases it can help with are heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and AIDs. Another use of the CRISPR system is to create “designer” babies. A designer baby is a baby genetically engineered in vitro for specially selected traits, which can vary from lowered disease-risk to gender selection (Ly 1). The term in vitro simply means outside of an organism, meaning the procedure happened in a test tube, culture dish, or etc. But using this type of advanced technology comes with its fair share of ethical issues. 

Although the benefits of genetic modification are plentiful, there are moral concerns that people have. To continue with the “designer” babies, people question whether it’s right that the babies undergo these modifications. This is because the baby itself doesn’t have any say in whether it undergoes this procedure, or any way to give consent. Another concern that comes with “designer” babies is whether it’s fair; these children will literally be made to be better than others. Would it be fair to have a baby genetically modified to be athletic and be able to compete in sports? Another issue that comes with GM is the suffering GM animals have to go through. To start off, producing eggs or the embryos used in the GM process involves drug-induced superovulation of females which may involve killing the females (Bailey 11). Along with this, it is estimated that around 20% of GM animals suffer minor discomfort, 15% severe discomfort, and a 30% increase in mortality and susceptibility to disease (Bailey 13). An example of this is pugs, which are selectively bred to have flat faces, suffering with breathing problems. But the issues that come along with GM will hopefully disappear as we learn more about the technology.

Genetic modification helps us make foods have a greater yield, become resistant to diseases and have longer shelf lives. It even helps us create vaccines to prevent diseases. We use techniques like selective breeding, RNA interference, and the CRISPR system. But genetic modification does have some ethical concerns with it, like consent to being genetically modified, and the safety issues that come with it. As we advance further everyday, we will be able to learn more about genetic modification and solve the problems that come with it.

Works Cited Page 

Bailey, Jarrod. “Genetic Modification of Animals: Scientific and Ethical Issues.” Animal Experimentation: Working Towards a Paradigm Change, edited by Kathrin Herrmann and Kimberley Jayne, vol. 22, Brill, 2019, pp. 443–79, http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1163/j.ctvjhzq0f.26. Accessed 5 Apr. 2022.

Ly, Sarah, “Ethics of Designer Babies”. Embryo Project Encyclopedia (2011-03-31). ISSN: 1940-5030 http://embryo.asu.edu/handle/10776/2088. Accessed 12 Apr. 2022. 

Mattick, John S. “GENETIC MODIFICATION.” Biodata and Biotechnology: Opportunity and Challenges for Australia, Australian Strategic Policy Institute, 2020, pp. 19–21, http://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep26124.6. Accessed 5 Apr. 2022.

Ross, Rachel. “What Is Genetic Modification?” Live Science, 01,Feb. 2019, 

https://www.livescience.com/64662-genetic-modification.html. Accessed 5 Apr. 2022. 
Sethi, Vansh. “Designer Babies: The Ethical Dilemma with Gene Editing”  Medium, 25, Jan. 2022, Accessed 12 Apr. 2022.  https://medium.com/swlh/designer-babies-the-ethical-dilemma-with-gene-editing-67d7220bc2f5.