What is the harmful effect of genetic engineering?

Answer 1

Well, the bad is that it's a fairly new area, and people aren't really certain about what might happen in the long run from what they do. Something that looks good to start with might end up doing a lot of damage.

Answer 2

I speculate homo sapien's extinction... civil unrest... a grand divide, between humans and homo superior or superhumans but these are possiblity, in a very pessimistic sense maybe even slightly probable... I'll paraphase Stephen Hawking "It will take sometime for the human race to mature after genetic engineering will be reshaping our world..etc"

Answer 3

In the strictest sense, a mutation is any change in the sequence of the DNA residing in the organism's entire complement of DNA, that is its genes or "genome". The vast majority of DNA for any organism that is not a bacterium is contained within the nucleus of its cells. A small portion of the DNA is however contained in the energy producing "power plant" of the cell, its mitochondria.

Mutations can be a change in a single letter (A, G, C, or T are the four chemical letters used in DNA), an insertion of an extra letter(s), or the deletion of a letter(s). Anything that makes them different from the original DNA is therefore considered a "mutation". Not all mutations are bad. Mutations can change minor functions of a particular protein that might even make it perform better in its usual task. However, generally speaking the average person thinks of a mutation as bad. There certainly is abundant evidence for bad mutations, ranging from those that can lead to an inheritable risk of cancer to those that cause sickle cell anemia, to name just two. But in evolutionary terms, not all mutations are bad. Some can lead to favorable changes in the Biology of the organism.

There are also differences in how mutations occur. There are certainly those that occur during DNA replication, but there are also those that can occur as a result of other events in a cell's life that cause it to need to repair its own DNA, say a chemical injury. These mutations do not occur during the process of reproduction, but are newly acquired as a result of some type of insult or other cellular action.

Answer 4

While there are plenty of anecdotal reports, and only a few scientists are calling this bad, there is no consensus among establishment researchers that this is actually bad. Here are some of the hypothetical and alleged problems:

1. There is an increase in Allergies involving grain products. If there is a connection to GMOs, then here is one way it could be connected. Let's suppose you are allergic to some noxious weed, but not allergic to corn. Then suppose that the noxious weed is resistance to pesticides. So some big company decides to splice genes from the weed you are allergic to into the corn genome. Then all of a sudden, you find you can no longer eat corn products.

2. There are ethical issues, such as it being against the law to say that a product is GMO without a disclaimer negating the value of such a message. Now let's put that in a different context. What if the government passed a law saying it is okay for bartenders to add illegal drugs to Alcoholic Beverages without telling you? Or a law saying it is acceptable to add manure to fast food without telling you? (And any jokes about the food tasting like it is contaminated that way aside.) I am sure you wouldn't be okay with that. Why not disclose what is in the food and let consumers decide what they want to purchase?

3. There may be unintended consequences. For instance, bacteria can pick up traits from neighboring cells. What if a crossover can occur between the cells in your body and the genes in the modified foods? That is doubtful to occur due to the species being so different. But if this could happen, the body could be making its own toxins from the foreign genes that somehow get spliced in. Or, if the genes have terminators to prevent reproduction of the plants involved, then it could adversely affect the human reproductive system. This is all far-fetched, but it should be ruled out. Unintended consequences is why human cloning is currently illegal in the US and a number of other nations. The constructed embryo is not the same as the original one

Answer 5

Biological diversity must be protected and respected as the global heritage of humankind, and one of our world's fundamental keys to survival.

Answer 6

Genetic engineering cannot be called yet an exact science, malformation and mutations inadequate to sustain normal life can be created.

Answer 7

The bad thing about Genetic modification[food] is that we don't know weather it is safe or not. You could end up turning a healthy carrot into a poisons carrot