Graph

Key: The spares is the people that think that both benefits and harmful effects are equal. The triangle are the people that the harmful results will outweigh the benefits of genetic engineering. The diamonds are the people that think that the benefits will out weigh the harmful results.


Most people would think that it would be easy to find a graph for my topic but it was really hard. The only one I found is a little old and I bet that the data has changed in the years. The graph shows what people think about genetic engineering. From 1985-2001 is the years that they got this data. This graph shows the way people change their mind over years. In 1985 46% of the people in the US believed that the benefits of genetic engineering were more important than the harmful results. In 2001, that percentage dropped to 40%. People that thought that the harmful results were more important only made a 38% and after 16 years it dropped to 33%. The only one that when up was the people that thought that both benefits and harmful effects were equal. One thing I didn’t know was that more people think that the benefits will outweigh the harmful effects. The data is somewhat reliable since it came for a college. This data is important because you can look were people stand on this topic. It was very interesting to see this.

The new article

As I was looking though articles I stubbed across The Boston Globe. In there I found an article called “Gene-altered animals and food safety,” by Rick Weiss. This article talks about what is happening recently in the genetic engineering world. Thanks to the recession many people were not informed about this.

The article starts of by talking about food. As many people already know some of our meats, milk, and cheese come from cloned cows or from their babies. In January the FDA said cloned meat was safe to eat. Now recently the FDA also said that genetically modified animals can also be sold in the market. Would you like a genetically modify steak for dinner? I personally would not. They have added genes in salmon so it can grow faster. Also, they have added a bacterial gene in pigs so they can be a little more environmentally friendly. In cows they have added fish genes to get omega-3 fatty acids. A good hypothetical question Rick asked was “what happens when gene-enhanced salmon escape their offshore cages and mate with their wild cousins?” We may not find out but in all this there is good news. The FDA has strict rules and restriction for the genetically modified food to get to the market. The bad news is that if it approved most details and data will be hidden. They call this “confidential business information.” I mean we all do not know about genetically modified foods and we need information. One thing the FDA can improve on is labeling the modified foods and posting information. Like Rick Weiss said in this article “The United States needs a system for approving some gene-altered animals.”

This article helps you realize all the things the government does behind our back and we do not even know it. I have even learned things that I did not know. For example, I did not know that now it is permitted to sell modified foods. Where has this world gone to?

Movie-Jurassic Park

“Run!” yelled Dr. Grant as the giant T-Rex broke out of its cage. This scene is from Jurassic Park, one of the best classics we ever had. The director Steven Spielberg made this movie realistic and most of all he entertained so many people. He has won three Oscars and has been nominated over 70 times. Spielberg is a famous director and producer. Other movies that he has produced are Saving Private Ryan, E.T., and Sherk. The actors in Jurassic Park help the viewers feel the same pain they felt. The cast members were Sam Neill, Jeff Goldblum, Richard Attenborough, Laura Dern, Joseph Mazzello, Ariana Richards. All of them helped in one form or another. The genre of the movie was Science-Fiction. In other words the movie is very hypothetical.

I think Jurassic Park is a must see because it is constitutes of action and a good story line. The story starts of in a small isolated island. There some scientist clone and genetically engineered dinosaurs for an amusement park. Some thing bad happens and the dinosaurs break out and over run the island. One of the best scenes in the movie is the part when the T-Rex broke out and is chasing the rest of the people. There is a lot action to explain it all so I recommend watching it.

The writer did know about genetic engineering thanks to his education in Harvard. He had this to say “I believe that science is a wonderfully powerful, but distinctly limited tool.” I completely agree with him due to the fact that science helps us in some places but we have to be careful in others.

Two different sides

When it comes down to genetic engineering there are two main sides to the issues. One of the sides is the church’s point of view. We are going to talk about the Catholic Church. Different churches have different opinions. The other side would be the scientists and the people that support genetic engineering. In the two different opinions there are some things that are the same.

The similarity of both sides is the agriculture. Both the scientists and the church believe that genetically engineered foods can help people. Camillo Ballin, a bishop that wrote to the president explaining what the church thought about this topic, said that the church accepts technology that protect human life and that help it. Edvard Kinitz, a scientist, explains that genetically engineered foods can stop world hunger. Both of these opinions agree that genetically engineered food can potentially help the human race (Camillo Ballin, in a letter)(Edvard Kinitz http://www.geneticengineering.org/isgood/default.htm).

When it comes down to genetic engineering human both sides have different ideas. The Church implies that we should not sacrifice someone’s life for science. The Church does want science to keep going and find cures that we have not yet found. While, Edvard believes that we need to genetically modify ourselves to live in the future. He thinks by genetically modifying ourselves we can keep up with the intelligent of the computers, or we can modify our body to adapt to a different planet. By doing such things it will enhance the way we live. He also believes that genetic engineering is the key for cures that we do not have today. The different sides orient them selves by their beliefs (Camillo Ballin, in a letter)(Edvard Kinitz http://www.geneticengineering.org/isgood/default.htm).

The two different sides think completely different but they do have some common ground. Everyone has their own opinion.

Ballin, Camillo. "Where the Catholic Church Stands on Genetic Issues." Letter to the president. 9 Feb. 2006. .

Kinitz, Edvard. "Why genetic engineering is advantageous for humankind." GEENOR. 19 Nov. 2000. .

Personal opinion

When we chose the topics for the blogs I knew I wanted to research something sciences related. I narrowed my options to two main things, cloning or genetic engineering. I chose genetic engineering because I have heard a lot about it but never knew what it actual was. Once I started researching I found a lot of things on it and there were always two main sides; one was for genetic engineering and the other one was against genetic engineering. I felt a little pushed toward the side that is against genetic engineering because of my religion.

Most of the things I found, when I was researching had, did not agree with my idea of ethical. For example, changing the way a baby should looks or making it genetically better then others. If you ask me I say we are trying to play God. We are trying to advance our society but we are doing it in the wrong way. I did not like this. Other information that I found was not that bad but it is not good. The other thing that I found was that we genetically modify food to our advantage. We have done this to corn, tomatoes, and even to some animals. I personally do not what to eat an animal with another animal’s gene in it. I also found out that that kind of meat is not labeled, so we could be eating it right now and not even be aware of it. This is what I have so far.

After all the research I have done I still have some question to look for. I still do not know the laws behind it all. One example is to find who makes the laws or something thing like that. I will find this in quarter two. I was my personally opinion thanks for reading.

P.S. sorry for the way the blog looks I do not know how to fix it

Essay for genetics

As the world moves on so does the potential of changing its genetic structure. Currently humans are now able to change genetically the appearance of an unborn. We should not genetically modify humans because it takes away our individuality, may create the “perfect” race, and will add ethical issues.

Scientists have discovered that we can change the appearance of a baby that is still in the mother’s womb. We have the ability to change the eye color, the hair color, and even intelligent. In recent studies we can also change the behavior and a person’s character, but until what point makes you, you. Once someone changes certain things like these he or she is not them selves anymore. If everyone started altering their babies to be the perfect baby, then everyone would look the same and individuality would be lost. Someone’s special gift would be just another trait for a “perfect” baby. When those babies reproduce their babies will also carry those traits, changing the gene pool (http://www.allaboutpopularissues.org/human-genetic-engineering.htm). Does the world really want to lose its individuality?

In 1945 Adolf Hitler tried to create the “perfect” race. Hitler believed that everyone with blue eyes and blond hair was perfect but those who did not have that needed to be eliminated. Hitler killed more than 43 million people to try to reach his goal but never made it (http://library.thinkquest.org/04apr/00774/en/controversy_con.html). Is America trying to create a perfect race like Hitler? By altering the next generation of babies to be perfect we, in other words, are trying to change the way everyone looks, thinks and acts. This would be a great calamity if there were going to happen. We would become the same people that we once fought against. We should think about what our next move is so that history does not repeat its self.

A big question that pops up in this is, are we playing God by doing this? Many ethical issues are brought up when this topic is mention. It is NOT ethical or moral to change someone genetically when that person can not talk or speak for its self. What can a baby do if it is inside the mother? Are trying to play God by trying to create our very own children? We should not mess with a life because it is sacred. But most of these ethics situations depend a lot on what belief someone has (http://www.allaboutpopularissues.org/human-genetics-research-faq.htm). This is something someone should ponder about.

Further more, genetically modified human should not be permitted. If America wants to keep its individuality and its ethical morals, then they should stop with genetic engineering. History should not repeat its self.

"Pros and cons." Genetic Engineering: the Human's playground. 2004. .

"Human Genetic Engineering." All about popular issues. 2002-2008. .

"Human Genetics Research." All about popular issues. 2002-2008. .

Genetics survey

My survey for genetic engineering was simple and strait forward. The first question I asked was gender. That good to know because you know who is more informed, girls or boys? The second question I asked was what grade level they were in. I asked that because of my arbitrary behavior. After that I asked if you know what genetic engineering is. That may sound banal but you will be surprised on the results. The other two questions were more in deep. One was if you think genetic engineering is ethical and the other was would you eat genetically modified food.

Now let’s see the results. I surveyed 12 people, 5 girls and 7 boys. Out of the 5 girls 4 of them did know what genetic engineering was. While only 4 of the guys knew what it was. This implies that girls are more informed then boys. Another thing I noticed was that the higher grade levels knew what it was while the lower levels like freshmen did not. This means that genetics is taught at a higher grade level. On the question talking about ethics 4 of the 5 girls say it was perfectly fine to mess with genes. When I asked the boys this question, only 2 out of the 7 said it was ethical. That’s pretty interesting. On the final question 3 girls would eat genetically modified food and 1 might eat it. For the boys only 2 would eat it, 3 won’t eat it and 2 might eat it. One thing that might have affected my data was if they were with friends. Usually people tend to copy one any other cause their too lazy or just don’t want to do it. I think that happened with the girls. Another thing was that some people marked that they did know what genetic engineering was when they actually didn’t know. It was interesting to see what I got.

On my next few blogs I will work on informing the people about genetic engineering and about thinking freely. I thought there was going to be more people against it then for it but I learned a lot in this survey.