Many people do not realize that genetic engineering plays a role in many lives through out the world. Genetic engineering includes artificial insemination, in vitro fertilization, sperm banks, cloning, and gene manipulation (Goetz 178). Synthetic insulin is now available for use to treat diabetes. This man made insulin has many positive aspects, which include its life span, cost to manufacture it, and the amount that is available. The synthetic insulin lasts two to three times longer than its natural form and costs substantially less to manufacture than to extract it from an animal, primarily pigs. One other benefit is the amount that can be manufactured. In pigs,

Lewin, Seymour Z. "Nucleic Acids". Microsoft Encarta [CD-Rom]. Microsoft Corporation, Funk & Wagnalls Corporation, 1994.

Safety of genetic engineering is something that presents much concern. Looking at the current precautions and previous precautions of the biotechnological industry can clear up the safety issue. Today the Federal and State Governments set many limitations on biotechnological industries. The FDA and State Governments impose limits such as the illegalization of human cloning and limits on other genetic engineering processes. The only legal forms of genetic engineering that are used today are in vitro fertilization, artificial insemination, and sperm banks. Another form of genetic engineering is the use of gene therapy. Gene therapy is illegal because people should not be able to create the perfect child, but they should be able to correct a gene in a child if it has a chance of being born with Down syndrome. The safety precautions are in effect in order to save the lives of unborn babies. Gene therapy cannot be used on humans until it is perfected and there is little or no chance of failure. These sciences are not perfect but give it a few years and it will be a great benefit to the human race.

As society reads increasingly about genetic engineering, they seem to form views that are not based on facts, but merely the opinions of a journalist. It is very easy to find articles in News Week or on the Internet that support genetic engineering. The thing that society needs to do is think about the facts and decide if the benefits of genetic engineering out weigh the consequences. Society tends to argue against genetic engineering using three main topics. First, it is not a safe thing for mankind to do because it is not part of the natural order of things. Many people also think it is letting doctors and scientists play the role of God. Third, people believe that scientists are trying to control something that man was not supposed to control. All of the previous topics have little or no support and were partly created because of society's ignorance.

Some benefits are used in medicine today, but the real benefits will come as genes can be altered more. The real benefit that will help mankind is when bioengineers will be able to replace a cancer or defective gene with a gene that does not have an error in its genetic code. "The new science of genetic engineering aims to take a dramatic shortcut in the slow process of evolution" (Stableford 25). What is meant by the previous quote is that scientists hope to take a gene from an organism and change it so that it will be immune to certain diseases and free from cancer. For example, many years ago small pox was widely spread. Today it is almost nonexistent, because of the evolution of man. The only problem with this was it took hundreds of years for our genetic code to adapt and make our bodies fight it.

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Approximate Word count = 2372
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)