GENETICS Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

GENETICS - Essay Example Almost all genetic engineering processes aim to make life easier, for those who suffer from genetic disorders. Some processes like genetic screening, even aim to recognize or diagnose disorders at an early stage, and even before the problems actually start showing their symptoms. Such early diagnoses would definitely help to prevent the disorder from reaching serious and debilitating conditions, thus saving lives. Gene therapy promises to replace the defective genes by normal and functional genes, thus bringing in a new hope for patients with no treatments available as such. However there is a dark side to all these bright envisions. Genes or chromosomes form the basic components of life, and scientists who work on genetic engineering are working with ‘life’ itself. Cloning which can create new organisms from a single DNA fragment makes a scientist equivalent to almost ‘God’, where the former is also creating new lives. It is here where one needs to have sup reme control and not cross certain limits, or else what we saw in the science thriller movie’ â€Å"Boys from Brazil’, where the Nazis procreate 94 clones of Hitler to bring back the ‘Third Reich’, would not remain a science fiction anymore, and may become a distinct reality, if we are not careful. The reproduction of humans and animals using artificial methods IVF, AI and embryo transplantation - Artificial insemination (AI), as defined by Nabor-Neri â€Å"artificial insemination is an impregnation not by means of natural intercourse, but by means of mechanical, artificial aids such as injecting the semen or sperm directly in to the female sex organ by the use of a tuberculin syringe† (Nabor-Nery, 81). This process is used as assisted reproductive techniques to impregnate the female partner where there is a case of fertility problems of the male partner, and also in