Applications and Responsibilities of Genetic Engineering

Over the past 12,000 years humans have gradually developed greater understanding and control over life. Agriculture, including plant and animal husbandry, were early important developments. Medicine also contributed to the control of life by fighting disease and more recently through technologies to control and manipulate fertility. Knowledge and technologies from physics and chemistry provide the tools to investigate biological processes at a molecular and even atomic level. Late 20th century and 21st century genetic science heralds remarkable advances in our understanding of life and our ability to control and manipulate it for our teleological endeavors. Emerging biotechnologies are in the foreground of modern scientific research. Evolutionary theory, Mendel's laws of inheritance, the discovery of DNA, the mapping of the human genome, genetic engineering (GE) of organisms, gene therapy, synthetic biology, cloning, stem cell therapies, epigenetics, and life extension research are theories and technologies providing powerful new insights into the nature of life and the development of technologies to manipulate all aspects of life. This knowledge is deconstructing and reconstructing our knowledge of what life is and what it means to be human, and where humans sit in the order of nature. Genetic technology has the potential to change biological and social reality. Its development and application have consequences for humans, other animals and the planetary biosphere. Applications and Responsibilities of Genetic Engineering demonstrate the state-of-the-art science and technology of genetic engineering. It is compendium of research articles contributed by renowned scientists on the basic applications and safety, in addition to the ethical and moral considerations, of the powerful genetic engineering techniques now available for modifying the molecules, pathways, and phenotypes of species of agricultural, industrial and even medical importance. While genetic engineering offers the potential to further bend nature to our desires, critical commentators express concern about negative extrinsic moral impacts. These include the potential to develop dangerous organisms, the impossibility of reversibility once such organisms are loose in the environment, and the potential for negative impacts on humans, other animals and the environment. Currently GE is being used to engineer micro-organisms and bacteria (particularly for the production of medicines such as insulin, factor 9 clotting agent, human growth hormone, etc.), plants and animals for food production, production of medicines, industrial production and phytoremediation. An example of a potential GE food animal is the 'eco- friendly' GE pig, engineered to contain bacteria which help pigs remove phosphate from their food, thus stopping it from passing through into the environment, where it causes harm to life in streams and rivers. One possibility presented by GE is the enhancement of nutritional qualities of crops, as for example, the much heralded golden rice. Golden rice has been engineered to contain extra beta-carotene which converts to vitamin A when consumed by humans. Genetic engineering for medical purposes is considerably more acceptable to the general public than GE of food crops. GE animals have been used as 'bioreactors' to produce medicines and industrial products. Cows, sheep and goats have been genetically engineered to produce human proteins in their milk for medical purposes.