Using Genetic Engineering to Cure Diseases and

Disorders

Joseph Bae (6th period)Ryan Lacker (8th period)

Basic Principals of Genetics

1) Q: How are traits controlled by dominant and recessive alleles? A: When there is just a recessive allele, that becomes the main trait. When a dominant

allele is present, however, the dominant allele masks the recessive allele and becomes the main trait.

2) Q: How are traits controlled with co-dominant traits? A: When 2 traits are co-dominant, the offspring has a high probability of getting 50% of

both traits. 3) Q: Explain how the alleles of 2 parents combine to express traits in offspring. A: The 2 alleles combine and which ever trait is dominant has the higher probability to

be in the offspring. This is shown in Punnett squares. Notice the genotypes and phenotypes.

Pp = Purple = 75%pp = blue = 25%

P p

P PP Pp

p pP pp

Beginning & Goals of the Human Genome Project 

The Human Genome Project began in October 1990 and ended in 2003. The goals of this project* were:1)to identify all of the genes in the human DNA

2)to determine the sequences of the 3 billion chemical base pairs that make up the human DNA

3)to store it in databases. Also, the project sought to improve tools for the analysis of data, to transfer related technologies to the private sector, and to address the ethical, legal, and social issues through the ELSI program. *According to http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/project/about.shtml

Implications of the Human Genome Project

The implications of the Human Genome Project are enormous. In regards to the social aspects, there have been many topics raised for debate. For example, many wonder if people will be discriminated in society for their genetic differences. This topic initiated the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008. Furthermore, many question who will have the authority to view and control genetic information. How will it be used? As to legal issues, an important question was whether or not people could copyright their own DNA. Also, the relative value of genetics must be determined. For ethical ideas and rules, many question if scientists are playing God. Others claim that Nature will take revenge on the world and humanity will end.

The Human Genome Project Changing Laws

The Human Genome Project has created and changed many laws. One law, the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 states that you cannot be discriminated against based on your genetic information or your susceptibility to have a certain disease due to your genetic information. The Genetic Information Privacy Act states that an individual has a right to genetic privacy. This means that if an individual goes to receive genetic testing, the results of that test will not be published to the public. The Human Genome Project changed these laws because of possible identity theft and so that no one would have less of an advantage in life than others.

1) Q: Compare and contrast the 3 different genetic disorders:• single gene disorder• chromosome abnormalities• multifactorial disorders

A: All of these genetic disorders include the cell or gene structure having an error. A single gene disorder is a problem with mutation in one gene. Chromosome abnormalities include an atypical number of chromosomes. Multifactorial disorders have multiple genes combining and can cause heart disease or diabetes.

2) Q: How can genetic counseling help perspective parents who have genetic disorder

regarding future offspring?A: It can raise awareness so that parents know what could happen to their future children and possibly prevent it somehow.

3) Q: How are karyotypes used to predict genetic disorders?

A: A karyotype shows how many chromosomes a person has so if you use it and see that the person (or you) has chromosomes starting to multiply or die, you can predict that a genetic disorder is about to occur.

Genetic Disorders

This is a picture of the male human karyotype.

Genetic engineering is beneficial and good in that it can safely cure diseases like hemophilia. Scientists can cure this illness by implanting patients with the "missing" DNA to simulate a blood clot factor. Dr. David Roth, director of hemophilia research at Beth Israel Deaconess Research Centre, says, "This is not a cure, but it has opened the door. It is completely safe because it uses patients' own cells, not other products. The patients felt great and were much less ill."

In this video, a doctor uses a high-tech telescope to find a mutation in the gene of a fetus. The doctor than treats the baby and fixes/prevents the mutation, which in this case, is the baby being born with three arms.

Argument 1:  Pro

Argument 2:  Pro

Genetic Engineering can prove to be immensely helpful in saving lives.  Technology has already evolved to help detect gene defects and unwanted traits, from simply using a pedigree chart to having a fetus undergo screening.   Now may be the time to start using the treatment to cure diseases such as Huntington's disease, ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease), and cystic fibrosis, which are caused by gene defects.  These can all eventually be cured using research and advancements in Genetic Engineering.   Many doctors and scientists, as well as patients, support engineering to cure diseases.  For example, Anindya Dutta, a professor of biochemistry and molecular genetics at the University of Virginia, believes that genetic engineering will produce cures in the near future and that skepticism is completely unfounded.

Gene therapy is another positive proof that genetic engineering for the purpose of curing genetic disorders is good. Gene therapy has been shown to work in some cases. Gene therapy is the treatment of a disease by inserting working genes in order to replace defective ones. Dr. W. French Anderson, a researcher with the Gene Therapy Branch at the National Human Genome Research Institute, did gene therapy to a young girl named Ashi Disilva.

He “took her blood cells, her immune cells, put in the gene that she was missing and gave her corrected immune cells, and he along with a team of doctors did that a number of times. Her last treatment was August 1992 and she is now a delightful, absolutely normal 14 year old girl who does all the things that normal kids ought to be doing.”

Argument 3:  Pro

Argument 4:  Pro

Genetic engineering should be used to cure diseases and disorders because it can eliminate problems and handicaps caused by genetic diseases or disorders.

For example, if everyone who had a genetic disease or disorder were cured, there would be no more discrimination, people could lead more fulfilling lives, and the cost of medical care for those with disorders would be eliminated.

If genetic engineering could be used successfully, it could also lead to eliminating other undesirable traits (such as poor vision or acne), help to make humans live longer, be smarter and stronger, and overall happier, according to Steven Hawkings.

Argument 5:  Con

One reason that genetic engineering to cure diseases and disorders is not a good idea is it conflicts with people’s views and beliefs. In addition, many doctors, as shown to the right, would not want to use genetic engineering to cure people. For example, over half of the people in most countries believe that genetic engineering is dangerous because it is tampering with Nature. Over half also agree that Nature will exact revenge in some way. Also, surveys show that most people would only get gene

This video shows a man with a heredity 3 arm gene that he wishes to be fixed by a doctor so he can have children safely. The doctor however believes this to be against Nature and kicks the man out. You can watch it here if the above video doesn’t work.

therapy if they were under a life-threatening circumstance.

One scientist, Dr. John Fagan, states that genetic engineering is still too unpredictable to use often. He is ethically against any genetic engineering.

Argument 6:  Con

Genetic engineering is also not a good idea because there are not enough doctors that are knowledgeable about genetic engineering techniques or experienced in practicing genetic engineering. The science itself is also too new. Educating numerous doctors in such a precise and relatively new method will not be easy, realistic, or practical. Even the homepage of the Human Genome Project website states that scientists contributing to the project are worried about this issue.

Argument 7:  Con

Genetic engineering to cure diseases and disorders is not a good idea because of the very high temptation to abuse the technique for superficial purposes. For example, as humans become more comfortable with genetic engineering to cure diseases and disorders, some may want to use genetic engineering to alter non-life-threatening issues such as appearances and physical traits. People could be tempted to use genetic engineering, for example, to create an elite or super race of humans that are supernaturally strong or “perfect” in appearance, or even super-human smart. Cloning may also become a major problem if an "elite" race of humans were created and decided to kill off regular humans or to enslave them.

Genetic engineering to cure diseases and disorders should not be performed because of the high fail rate. For example, when scientists tried to clone an animal (Dolly the sheep), they tried 277 times. Out of those 277 tries, 29 embryos survived, and out of those 29 embryos, only 1 made it through the entire procedure. Even though Dolly was successful, she still lived with many disabilities. For example, Dolly, even when she was a young sheep, she displayed signs of arthritis and other signs of rapid aging. Overall, genetic engineering may actually cause more defects than they cure.

Argument 8:  Con

Conclusion

In the end, we believe that genetic engineering to cure diseases and disorders should ultimately not be given government funding for the near future. Genetic engineering is just too risky to perform on humans. There is a lot of proof that genetic engineering is clearly not a precise, dependable process right now. It simply doesn't accurately and consistently achieve the desired results. In fact, genetic engineering has a high potential to create negative results. In addition, genetic engineering is counter to many religions and beliefs of far too many people. Those that oppose genetic engineering see proponents as trying to play God or trying to defy Nature Likewise, genetic engineering could be used unethically. People could seek to engineer "elite" babies with "ideal" traits for beauty, physical fitness, and other abilities. At some point, that train of thought could possibly lead to other abusive uses, such as creating an army of cloned super humans to be used for war.

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