The GMO Dilemma: Society’s Boon or Bane?

We’ve heard a lot about GMO (Genetically Modified Organism) or genetic manipulation. You can find everywhere in our life in foods, clothes and include medication. As science and technology have developed, humans become able to manipulate genes and there are many voices of interest and concerns.There are positive voices about GMO. They are saying in GMO products, the damage caused by insects, weeds and natural disasters is less than natural agricultural products and the improvement in quality resulted in an increase in production and decrease in miscellaneous expenses such as labor costs and pesticides.

Also, it is possible to make vaccines for various disease include incurable disease through gene manipulation, even possibility to restore destroyed animals and plants that disappeared long time ago.

However, there are lots of concerning issues about GMO. GMO organism with strong resistance will destroy the current ecosystem and eventually only GMO organism will be survived. Also, no one knows what the consequences will occur for people who take long-term ingestion of GMO foods since we don’t know that GMO organism with strong resistance might increase human resistance to antibody. Since our bodies are directly affected, more time and effort will be required for recovery and treatment after problems are discovered. In addition, the genes of GMO organisms can be mutated to create mutations. Although it can be considered a kind of evolution, it will have negative consequences such as destroying the ecosystem. Moreover, after the introduction of modified crops, super weeds emerged that are difficult to kill even with herbicides. Modified crops make themselves toxic and defend against pests, but over times, pests and weeds also have the tolerance.

In the movie Gattaca (1997), most people are born with genetic manipulation that parents can choose good genes for their baby. In that movie, Ethan Hawke was born naturally without any genetic manipulation, dreams to become an astronaut that only smart and genetic manipulated person able to get in. I was in shock when I watched this movie since I thought it could be happening real in our society.In U.S.A. parents can choose the gender of their baby during in vitro fertilization (IVF). Gender selection during in vitro fertilization is prohibited in some other countries since there is possible unethical problems and producing inequality population of men and women. One year ago, my one of high school friends decided to come U.S.A. for in vitro fertilization to have a boy after birth of three daughters. It costs her total $50,000, but she says it’s worth it since she was under lots of stress to have a boy over 10 years. According to Grazian, popular culture refers to the aesthetic products created and sold by profit-seeking firms operating (Grazian,D p.6). Without demand, there will be no production, and there will be more people to come to U.S.A. to select gender of their baby and soon or later, shortage of women population will cause another problem in our society.

Lots of scientists, biotechnologists and others in the food industry support genetic modification for their profit; however, there is no scientific consensus on GMO safety and not confirmed its stability by World Health Organization. Also, there is no guarantee that transgenes and manipulations in the medical field will not result to create human mutation in few hundred years later.

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