Pros and Cons of Genetic Engineering: Ethical Issues and Risks

This research highlights the advantages and disadvantages of genetic engineering or the pros and cons based on various trials done in cloning, safety risks and any other ethical issues that may arise in genetic engineering. The research purpose is to identify the safety and efficacy of genetic modification in enhancing the quality of a cell. The ethical considerations in a research takes into consideration the guidelines in the research while making decisions that affect any group of people or individual taking part in the research. The various ethical issues that arise from the research may include safety, utility, accuracy, confidentiality, propriety, transparency, feasibility, harm minimization, justifiability, implementation, fair balance of harms and benefits, and reciprocity.

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Introduction to Research
Name:
Course
Professor’s name
University name
City, State
Date of submission

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Table of Contents
Introduction....................................................................................................................................2
Research background....................................................................................................................2
Research purpose and expected results.......................................................................................3
Pros and cons of the research.......................................................................................................3
Ethical issues, Integrity and safety issues and risks...................................................................4
Findings........................................................................................................................................4
Discussion....................................................................................................................................4
Response plan.................................................................................................................................5
Conclusion......................................................................................................................................6
References.......................................................................................................................................6

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Introduction
Research ethics is generally the process that systematically gives justifiable evidence and
clarity with maintaining a balance to actions taken while conducting the specific research. All
these is based on ethical principles, values and beliefs of the research team. The ethical
considerations in a research takes into consideration the guidelines in the research while making
decisions that affect any group of people or individual taking part in the research (Department of
Health, 2014). The main purpose of this research is to highlight the advantages and
disadvantages of genetic engineering or the pros and cons based on various trials done in
cloning, safety risks and any other ethical issues that may arise in genetic engineering. The pros
and cons in these effect are too much to ignore.
Research background
Genetic engineering or modification has become important in manufacturing of drugs,
gene therapy and creating model animals that mimic human conditions. It has become an

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important process in medicine in enhancing a cell component with one of the earliest uses of GM
being human mass production of insulin in bacteria. This has keenly been applied to human
hormones in vaccines, follicle stimulating hormones as well as monoclonal antibodies. While
considering the economic conditions, diseases can become a huge burden in health care system.
Without proper treatment, diseases can become a huge burden to families due to financial
demands .(Deterding, Canossa, Harteveld, Cooper, Nacke, and Whitson, 2015). This research
will test the importance of genetic modification in improving a cell which is useful in treating
major ailments. The research applied will be qualitative research methods. It will also focus
partially on experimental and correlational ability focusing on observation and field experiment.
Research purpose and expected results
The research purpose is to identify the safety and efficacy of genetic modification in
enhancing the quality of a cell. Also , in the report, the ethical consideration will focus on areas
of crucial delicate nature and are supposed to be justified. Application of methods and prospects
for the development of genetic engineering in food production.
Now they can already synthesize genes, and with the help of such synthesized genes
introduced into bacteria, a number of substances, in particular hormones and interferon, are
obtained. Their production constituted an important branch of biotechnology (Dingwall,
Iphofen,., Lewis, Oates, and Emmerich, 2017). So, in 1980, growth hormone - somatotropin -
was obtained from Escherichia coli bacteria. Before the development of genetic engineering, it
was isolated from the pituitary from corpses. Somatotropin, synthesized in specially designed
bacterial cells, has obvious advantages: it is available in large quantities,

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Pros and cons of the research
Despite the obvious benefits of genetic research and experimentation, the very concept of
“genetic engineering” has generated various suspicions and fears, has become a subject of
concern and even political disputes. Many fear, for example, that some virus that causes cancer
in humans will be introduced into a bacterium, usually living in the body or on a person’s skin,
and then this bacterium will cause cancer. It is also possible that the plasmid carrying the drug
resistance gene will be introduced into pneumococcus, as a result of which the pneumococcus
will become resistant to antibiotics and the pneumonia will not be treatable. This kind of danger
certainly exists. Genetic engineering has presented a unique challenge to humanity. What does
genetic engineering bring us, happiness or trouble? About the possible danger of genetically
modified products for human health is already blowing the whole world. There is no
unambiguous and unanimous opinion of scientists on this issue.
In others, a strict requirement was made to label genetically modified food, which, of
course, was very disliked by suppliers.. Animals developed a whole range of serious changes in
the gastrointestinal tract, liver, goiter, and spleen (Hu, and Xiong,2014). Probably, this year the
permission for its industrial production will be received. However, scientists do not intend to
stop the resurrection of animals. If it is possible to resurrect them, then the same can be done
with people. The development of science gives us the potential for both the bad and the good.
Therefore, it is important that we make the right choice. The main difficulty is of a political
nature - this is the solution to the question of who "we" are in this sentence. If this question is left
to the mercy of market forces, the long-term interests of the environment are likely to suffer. But
this can be said about many other aspects of life. One of the main directions in which the
technologies of genetic engineering are applied is agriculture.

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Ethical issues, Integrity and safety issues and risks
Findings
Every research has one or more limitations. A larger part of research concern is shown in the
ethical field of the research. The various ethical issues that arise from the research may include;
 Safety
 Utility
 Accuracy
 Confidentiality
 Propriety
 Transparency
 Feasibility
 Harm minimization
 Justifiability
 Implementation
 Fair balance of harms and benefits
 Reciprocity
Discussion
A classic method of improving the quality of agricultural products is selection - a process
in which, by artificial selection, individual plants or animals with certain properties are
distinguished and crossed for the hereditary transmission of these properties and their
enhancement. This process is quite long and not always truly effective. Genetic engineering has

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the ability to provide some kind of living organism with properties uncharacteristic of it, to
enhance the manifestation of some existing properties or eliminate them. This is due to the
introduction of new or exclusion of old genes from the DNA of the organism. For example, this
is how a special potato variety resistant to the Colorado potato beetle was bred. The use of
genetic engineering to change the properties of plants, as a rule, is done just to increase their
resistance to pests, unfavorable environmental conditions, improve their taste and growth
qualities. Intervention in the genome of animals is used to accelerate their growth and increase
productivity (Glesne, 2015).
Products of agriculture thus also artificially increase the amount of essential amino acids
and vitamins, as well as their nutritional value. It is believed that in the context of the constant
growth of the planet’s population, only genetically modified products will be able to save the
world from starvation in the future, allowing them to grow food high quality, with a high content
of vitamins, etc. However, there is an opposite opinion, which stands for the fact that genetically
modified products may be unsafe for human health. To clarify the safety issues of such products,
special international commissions have been created, which at the present time agree that
genetically modified products do not pose a threat to human health. In the vast majority of
countries in the world, the use of genetically modified products is permitted or not urgent
(Nødvig, Nielsen, Kogle, and Mortensen, 2015).
To predict the long-term effects that may occur as a result of the consumption of
genetically modified products is currently impossible at all. Relatively calm about GM - products
(genetically modified) - in the United States, where about 80 percent of all genetic crops are
grown today. Europe, on the other hand, treats this extreme negatively. Under the onslaught of

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the public and consumer organizations that want to know what they eat, in some countries a
moratorium on the importation of such products has been introduced (Austria, France
The number of arguments for the use of the GMF far exceeds the possible arguments
against. Thus, supporters of the GMF refer in particular to the high level of quality control of all
genetically modified products (GMF). Over the twenty-year history of using these products in
different countries of the world, not a single fact of their negative impact on human health has
been identified, which cannot be said of traditional agricultural products, which inevitably use
various kinds of fertilizers, many of which are recognized as harmful to humans. Moreover, a
selection that has been used in agriculture for centuries, in essence, pursues the same genetic
modification of organisms, only does this for a much longer period of time (Harriss, and
Atkinson, 2015). Genetic engineering is simply capable of introducing the necessary changes
into the body in a short time, and therefore the use of the GMF is no more dangerous than the use
of any other products derived by the method of classical selection. Horizontal gene transfer (such
that the body transfers its genetic material to another organism that is not its descendant), is quite
common in nature. This suggests that the genetic modification of organisms is not unnatural. The
final argument in favor of genetic modification of organisms in agriculture is the technical
methods of protection against hybridization of organisms, i.e. from combining the genetic
material of different cells in one (Quinlan, Babin, Carr, and Griffin, 2019). Opponents of the use
of genetic engineering in agriculture appeal to the lack of safety studies of the GMF (however,
this issue is constantly being investigated), as well as to the fact that GMOs sometimes cause the
disappearance of certain species (Rezania and Xu, Lifescan 2014).

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For example, wild genetically modified organisms can force out populations of wild
species due to their greater adaptability to adverse environmental conditions. GMOs can also
form hybrids with wild organisms, spreading artificially introduced genes in nature.
Response plan
Major adaptation in response to ethical issues include
 Beneficence
 Non- maleficence
 Justice
 Respect for each other
Beneficence can be defined as taking into consideration the risks and harms associated with
the research. Currently, there are a number of projects aimed at developing ways to limit the
spread of transgenes in wild populations. Genetically modified organisms are also used in
science when conducting various kinds of research. Thus, the laws governing the development of
certain diseases, the processes of aging and regeneration are investigated, the functioning of the
nervous system is studied, and a number of other topical problems of biology and medicine are
solved (Tikly, and Bond, 2018).. Obtaining human insulin can be considered one of the
achievements of GMOs in medicine. As you know, insulin, previously obtained only from the
blood of animals, had a negative impact on health, although many people with diabetes cannot
do without it. Human insulin produced by genetically modified bacteria is safer. No maleficence
can be maintained by non-engagement in intentional harm to a person. Respect for persons is
also a major factor in. Also, on the basis of milk of genetically modified goats, a drug is made
for the prevention and treatment of thrombosis (Vyas, Barrasa, and Fink, 2015). Now scientists

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are conducting research aimed at obtaining a special type of protein from genetically modified
plants that can deprive the human immunodeficiency virus of virulence, i.e. to prevent its spread,
and subsequently to conduct AIDS prevention. In modern medicine, gene therapy is used to treat
various diseases - the process of making changes in the genetic apparatus of human cells. So the
cloning of a person or animal is definitely not able to repeat consciousness. The cloned
individual will not be endowed with the mind of the original organism, he will need upbringing,
education, etc. Moreover, the issue of the complete external identity of a clone is also
controversial. As a rule, a clone is not a complete copy of the original, since during cloning, only
the genotype is copied, which does not mean an unambiguous repetition of the phenotype of the
organism (Walliman, 2017)
Conclusion
Such human cloning is faced with even greater ethical, religious, and legal issues than
therapeutic. In principle, there is no definite opinion of the public on this score, exactly as the
world's largest religions are not able to give an unequivocal assessment of this phenomenon,
because it is beyond the scope of their classical teachings, and therefore requires argumentation.
There are also some legal difficulties, such as questions of paternity, motherhood, inheritance,
marriage, and some others (Zimmer and Proferes, 2014). The development of cloning is also
unsafe for reasons of control over it, as well as the possible leakage of technology into the
criminal and terrorist circles. Of particular concern is the high percentage of failures in cloning,
which is the danger of the appearance of people-freaks. Genetic engineering is one of the most
actively developing and promising technologies of our time, which in the future will be able to
solve many medical issues and not only.

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References
Department of Health, E., 2014. The Belmont Report. Ethical principles and guidelines for the
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Deterding, S., Canossa, A., Harteveld, C., Cooper, S., Nacke, L.E. and Whitson, J.R., 2015,
April. Gamifying research: Strategies, opportunities, challenges, ethics. In Proceedings of the
33rd Annual ACM Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing
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Dingwall, R., Iphofen, R., Lewis, J., Oates, J. and Emmerich, N., 2017. Towards common
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Quinlan, C., Babin, B., Carr, J. and Griffin, M., 2019. Business research methods. South Western
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