Genetic Engineering

The development of technology goes beyond the people's imagination to some extents. As it happens to the achievement of genetic engineering. The ability of creating new lives in laboratories brings hope and worries to the scientists themselves and ordinary people like us.

The research on stem cells, for example brings miracle to the patients of blood cancer, kidney failure, Hepatitis, Parkinson and other fatal diseases. The ability of the stem cells to differentiate into different organ cells can be seen as the light at the end of the tunnel. The patients of those fatal disease now have great expectation to recover from those deadly disease.

The invention in In-vitro Conception, for example, makes the married couples without children have dream that someday they could join the program of laboratory-intervened fertilization and can have a baby of their own.

In farming, the genetic engineering has opened up new opportunities for better crops. Farmers, for example, could make the fruits to be ripe at a time they wish. They ccan also have extraordinary shapes for the fruits. Watermelon, now can be made cube, not round as it is naturally. The shorter age and faster growth can be achieved to plant some hard teak wood. Transgenic farming can be used to feed the ever increasing population on earth.

With all these development, however, not everyone is happy. The medical researchers, for example, are worried that some will not consider the medicak ethics. They would try to get the stem cells from the umbilical cords not from the newly-born baby but from the embryo. These can lead to the exploitation of the less advantaged woman who can't support their pregnancies.

Some other scientists are worried with the possible failure in laboratory. The failure can pose the mankind with the diseases that can not be cured which in turn will wipe out the human race on earth.

Considering all those matters, there must be some regulations to enforce the ethical practice in the research procedures, the utility of the result, the mass production and the application of the result in the medical treatment. The authority should be able to prevent unwanted consequences of the genetic engineering technology by maintaining the law enforcement.

(Andras Setyorini, October 2009)