Move 3 | mysite

Interviews

To further my research, I wanted to find out what other people thought of genetic engineering. It was very hard to find opinions on this topic, but what I did find was slightly helpful. I was looking to find out where how many food products contain genetically engineered cells, if people considered it ethical, and what benefits they saw to come from GE. Many interviews mostly had the same questions, “ What is Genetic Engineering?”, “What types of consequences can come from GE?”, and “What are your thoughts on this new technology?”, so it was hard to find the specific answers I was looking for. However, I did find something that answered partial amounts of the question and helped me further understand genetic engineering. During an interview with Dr. John Fegan was asked what the pros and cons of the uprising technology were and why they created so much debate, he stated,

Researchers have become very excited about using genetic engineering to produce more abundant crops, to create more nutritious foods, to eradicate certain diseases, and thereby to improve the quality of human life on earth. But in reality, although genes can be cut and spliced accurately in the test tube, the process of splicing them into a living organism is extremely imprecise. These manipulations can cause mutations that damage the functioning of the natural genes of the organism. Inserted genes can also cause unanticipated side effects: genetically engineered foods, for example, may contain toxins and allergens or be reduced in nutritional value and consumers have, in fact, become sick and even died from such toxins already. Moreover, genetically engineered organisms may multiply and crossbreed with the natural, non genetically engineered population, creating irreversible biological changes throughout earth's ecosystem. (Fegan).

His response of the pros and cons agreed with what I said in previous moves, but his statement about the organisms being able to crossbreed with non genetically engineering organisms really made me think. If you were to create a “super human” and it were to breed with a non GE human, what would the affects be? Would the perfected genes slice negatively with the average ones, and if so what would be the affect on the child? I was also shocked to hear that there were reported cases of toxins and allergens in genetically modified foods, and there are even circumstances where people have died. That there was enough to shift my thoughts on genetic engineering as a whole, because if there are these types of effects on agriculture, could the same if not worse happen to humans?

Philip Bereano, a professor Emeritus in the field of Technology and Public Policy at the University of Washington in Seattle, was interviewed by the Worldwatch Institute's Nourishing the Planet Blog. His experience in public policy helped him answer the question, “What ethical issues are associated with GE in agriculture?” in which he answered,

There's a major ethical issue in the very simplistic reductionist model this technology is based on. The central dogma of GE is this image of the genome as a Lego set, where you can take out the green one and put in a red one. In reality, however, the genome is highly fluid and the parts interact. The Lego model is quite wrong, yet it's used constantly in public discourse, regulatory submissions, and legislative testimony. Biologists know how the genome actually works, but advancement in the profession rules out of play such subjects of discourse because they would challenge the positions taken by industry funders (Bereano).

This doesn’t totally answer my question on whether or not it’s ethical because there isn’t much evidence, but it does bring me closer to an idea. He also proposed that the scientists are portraying GE as it should be accepted by humanity, when the reality of it is that even the experts on the topic are sugar coating it with all the good possibilities that “could” come from genetic engineering.

When looking for where foods with GE modified cells end up or how often they are used currently, I found out they are much more common than I pictured. In the same interview with Dr. Fagan, he explained,

This is a critical question. One way would be to avoid every foodstuff known to have been genetically engineered. But soy is present in 60% of processed foods, corn is equally ubiquitous, and canola oil is quite common and all have been engineered. So have potatoes, tomatoes. and yellow crookneck squash, as well as enzymes and hormones used in treating cows, which therefore end up in milk. The list goes on and on. So avoiding genetic engineering in this way is not really practical (Fegan).

This is actually kind of scary. We honestly have no clue what we are eating and whether or not it is safe. As he previously stated, there are recorded deaths because of GMO’s, so with them being so common, who knows what's safe anymore? The only way I see that this problem could be solved, is if the government passed a law that required companies to release the information regarding whether or not their products have been genetically modified. With everything i've learned from all of the current experts, I am at a loss for whether I think this is a good idea or not. If it were to become a daily part of our society, then some rules and regulations need to be put in place. As I progress on my journey I am going to move into looking at certain experiments that have used genetic engineering specifically cloning. I will be looking for how the experiments went and whether they were successful or not, the benefits that cloning could bring as well as the negatives, and the possible outcomes of cloning.