Essay, Research Paper: Genetics

title: geneticstype: Term Paper
Genetic engineering is both good and bad for many reasons. The manyaffects of genetic engineering are seen on some species of plants such ascorn; animals such as rabbits; and in humans in in vitro fertilization, artificialinsemination, and cloning. Genetics may some day be able to let us clonedieing breeds of animals like the bald eagle. They might even some day beable to clone dinosaurs, as seen in the movie "Jurassic Park". When breedingwith plants, scientists take cells that are cut from a plant and placed in a flaskwith nutrient medium. When the cells grow and divide, they formembryonic, or unformed, tissues, which are transferred to soil where theyproduce complete plants. These are some of the newest technologies that arearound right now. In a few years, genetics will be one of the most importantsciences, because of the possibilities of cloning people.There are problems with cloning, though. In the Providence Journal,an article was written on October 26, 1993 called "Human cloning: Is itmorally right?" and it talks about the many problems of cloning. Dr. NormanFost said, that, "we'll make 100 Jimmy Carters or 100 Dan Quayles." Headded: "Environment plays too large a role. You could take 100 Hitlerembryos and raise them and never get Hitler." Another problem is that if youwanted to have a family full of Dan Quayles. If you had four children bornfive years apart, then the fourth would be able to see what the third, second,and first looked like at those different ages. That could possibly causepsychological problems. There are many other different kinds of jobs that have to do with
genetics. There are jobs having to do with gene testing where people go tothe doctor find out if there is anything that would make their baby beabnormal. Tests are now out to see if the parents of the child are carriers,people who do not have the disease but carry one of the two necessary genesfor the disease, for some of the many genetic mishaps. The chances of having a child being a carrier is two-in-four. The chances of the child beinga recipient of the disease is one-in-four, to not be anything is a one-in-fourchance. The Punnett square for this problem is Figure 'A'. Sometimes, when this technology of cloning DNA should be used isin the case of some types of turtles that don't breed often. Cloning their DNAwould possibly help their species survive. Another problem with cloningDNA is that of mutation. This may occur as the result of accidentalchemical changes in the cell; and long time exposure to: x-rays, ultravioletrays, and nitrous acid. There have been many patents granted to scientists and farmers forgenetically engineered plants. Some of these patents are: corn plants rich inthe amino acid tryptophan, cotton plants resistant to weed-killing herbicides,tobacco plants resistant to various kinds of insects, and potato plants resistant to certain types of viruses. There have also been patents granted inthe field of medicine. Here are some: erythropoietin, a hormone thatstimulates blood-cell formation; tissue-plasminogen activator, an anticlottinga agent used to treat heart attacks; and alpha-interferon, which has beenfound effective in treating hepatitis C. Genetics is very important in manyareas of applied biology and many other sciences, as well.