User:Jesse ShortGame
Genetic Engineering: Meddling With Naturality
[edit]**The Chrysalids in the 21st Century**
- 1. Definition of Genetic Engineering:**
Genetic engineering is the scientific alteration of the structure of genetic material in a living organism. It involves the manipulation of DNA to produce new types of organisms, usually by inserting or deleting genes. Using the technique of biogenetics, unlimited amounts of beneficial biological product can be produced. This technique involves introducing DNA from animals and plants into bacteria. The bacteria multiply at an exponential rate, so the product can be harvested perpetually from a bacterial colony. For example, human insulin is produced by inserting human insulin genes into bacteria and then extracting the insulin for the treatment of diabetes.
Amazingly, viruses containing healthy genes that are shared with that of human DNA can be inserted into human cells with the corresponding genes. The new genes perform as well as healthy human genes. Many bacteria can be used in the same way.
- 2. How Genetic Engineering is becoming a Presence in Modern Times:**
__I. Genetically Modified Organisms__ A process called recombinant DNA engineering is used to alter the genetic material of an organism. The product is a genetically modified organism (GMO). The term “genetically modified organism” does not necessarily imply, but does include, transgenic substitution of genes from another species. As the newest form of genetic engineering, transgenic substitution as a cure for cancer and other diseases has overwhelmed scientists with possibilities. However, they must remember that the human soul is not a science experiment.
This GMO is an abomination of nature and of spirituality but a revolutionary symbol of transgenic science. This is not computer animation; the genes of a wolf were actually mixed with those of a bird. Although the behaviour of the “wird” resembles that of both parent species, the animals do not have enough intellect to consider the implications of its creation. If the genes of a human and a bat, for example, were combined into one strand of DNA, the moral and ethical effects would be disconcerting.
__II. Possibility of Human Cloning__ Human cloning is a prospective product of the research and experimental results performed by the world’s top geneticists. It involves creating an identical copy of a living or deceased human being. So far, partial tissue cloning has been performed, but the replication of entire body has not yet been attempted, partially for scientific inadequacy and partially for ethical concern. Of course, humans are cloned when twins are formed in the natural process of reproduction, but nowadays the term refers to artificial cloning. When scientific outsiders think of having their own clone, they think of having a “Minime,” but based on personality research it is probable that the clone will share few if any personality traits with the “original.” Geneticists are still unsure how much personality is based on the genotype of an individual. The simplest cloning technique involves having the nucleus of a female’s egg cell removed and then fusing another cell of the same species with the donor cell. Through careful movements, the cells combine, expelling all of the extra organelles. This is the most common technique used on animals such as sheep. Parthenogenesis involves “inducing” an unfertilized egg to divide and grow as if fertilized, but the incidence of failure would far outweigh the incidence of success. Furthermore, parthenogenesis could only be used to clone females because of the XX genotype of the egg. Reproductive cloning is the implantation of a cloned embryo into a woman’s uterus. The baby should develop normally, but the long-term effects of this “experiment with a human life” are less predictable. Therapeutic cloning opens the possibility of creating a clone of a patient’s defective tissue or organ in good working order. DNA from the organ-transplant patient could be harvested and inserted into an unfertilized egg. At the embryo stage, stem cells for individual organs could be collected and they could form any tissue or organ. Since the genetic makeup of the cloned organs would be the same as that of the patient, immunosuppressant drugs used to prevent the immune system from attacking foreign tissue would not be necessary.
- 3. Positive and Negative Long-Term Effects of Genetic Engineering:**
__I. Positive Effects__
The prospect of genetic engineering boggles the mind.
• Through careful and methodical screening procedures, geneticists think it may be possible to eliminate diseases like Tay-Sachs. • By genetic screening, the health of unborn babies in the early stages of development could be assessed and parents would have more options of dealing with their infants’ disorders. • To treat diseases such as cancer, healthy stem cells from embryos can be inserted into the cancerous cells. • Consumed genetically engineered produce is believed to have positive effects on human health including cancer prevention, more nutrients and a decrease in the amount of herbicides needed.
Above is a detailed depiction of the genetic engineering of corn to increase its resistance to destructive insects. Enzymes and the Bt bacterium nucleus (Bacillus thuringiensis) are essential in this agriculturally and economically beneficial process of genetic engineering.
__II. Negative Effects__
Genetic engineering could yield unsuccessful “experiments” with human lives.
• The technology behind removing a gene from a codon of one cell’s DNA and reinserting it into the DNA of another cell at a precisely calculated location is not yet definite. It is relatively easy to remove the gene from the first cell, but since it is almost random where it is inserted, this method could disrupt the normal functioning of pre-existing genes. • Even if the surgery is performed successfully, side effects based on the relation of genotypes to phenotypes have not yet been verified or proved against. • The use of genetic engineering in agriculture means that entire crops will have the same genetic material that is engineered to resist a certain parasite. However, if another type of fungus or virus was introduced, all of these plants would be equally affected. • When cross-pollination is with a GMO plant happens, the genetic material in the GMO may contaminate that of the other plants, leading to the contamination of the entire produce supply in the area.
Time Magazine gives a controversial approach to the idea of cloning babies from the egg and sperm of impregnable couples or from the DNA of a deceased child. “Godsend” written by Mark Bomback shows an extreme case of cloning gone wrong. Watch it to find what happens when Robert de Niro and genetic engineering are mixed.
- 4. Application of Genetic Engineering to The Chrysalids:**
While the presence of genetic engineering is only hinted at in The Chrysalids, its long-term realistic effects are significant. The “purists” like Joseph Strorm and Old Man Jacob are performing an ambiguous type of genetic engineering. David Strorm’s Uncle Axel made a good point regarding the deviational crops that are burned. He said that they usually keep the crop with the greatest yield, so it cannot be sure if the beans that Old Man Jacob is so frenetic about would even be able to be recognized today. On another level, the fact that “Tribulation” created an odd scattering of deviations means that the genetic material of nearly every species on the planet was altered. Interestingly, it was altered in completely different ways in each area of the world. The areas immediately surrounding the sites of the nuclear explosions were completely devastated. Concentrically further out, plants were enlarged to derelict proportions, or else turned into a mix of many previous species. Humans were affected similarly and most of the deviations were inhibited physically or mentally. Some mutations such as having an extra toe did not affect the abilities of the deviant. There is only one mutational quality described in The Chrysalids that exhibits obvious superiority to the “norm”. The think-picture people have been given the gift of mutual thought, and only a very delicate maneuver from the physical effects of nuclear fallout could have created it. They have been given the power to converse without speaking, caress without touching and feel emotions without analyzing. The point John Wyndham is making about genetic engineering (although the term was not coined until much after his time) is that it is harmful to the social balance of human nature. The Chrysalids is a warning to what might happen if modern politicians engage in nuclear war and modern scientists engage try to play Mother Nature.
In this cover of John Wyndham’s masterpiece, “Chrysalids” are depicted to the most common of the word’s five definitions; “butterflies enclosed in a cocoon.” However, suggested in Penguin’s cover and by the story’s plot, “Chrysalids” is referring to “a protected stage of development.” There are two “protected premises of development” referred to here; that of the people of Waknuk and that of the people of Sealand. In the former, there is a race destined to obliterate any deviation by brute force. Their “development” consists of increasing closed-mindedness and disrespect. In the latter, everyone has embraced their positive mutation and progressed to become a superior species through mutual support.
This fruit fly has a mutation, which is a negative mutation for flies because the extra set of wings inhibits proper flight. Flies with this mutation are usually unable to reproduce and live shortly. But what if it was a positive mutation, rendering the fly able to travel twice as fast? Then would it be right to kill and prevent the reproduction of such mutants?
The rap group “Deviants” illustrates perfectly how deviants in The Chrysalids were treated. They were considered to be human garbage even if they had an extra toe or features only perceptible by close examination.
Prolonged exposure to nuclear radiation causes both positive and negative mutations, but with a positive mutation such as gaining an extra pair of arms, attached problems with the central nervous system are virtually inevitable. Radioactive elements such as plutonium and nuclear reactions involving one or more of these elements produce ionizing radiation that can destruct the genetic makeup of living cells. This mad scientist has gotten a first-, second-, third-and fourth-hand demonstration of this concept.
Spin the spinner. Live in a world with nuclear bombs.
Having six toes on one or both feet is neither a positive nor a negative mutation. People displaying this characteristic lead normal lives and have the same social, intellectual and motivational potential as everyone else.
The plant on the left is a black-eyed Susan. The plant on the right is the result of nuclear radiation. A Vermont gardener was presented wit these mutated organisms after she had a truckload of manure delivered from the farm outside of the Vermont Yankee nuclear facility. The manure had been laid in early 2004, so there were less incidents of the grotesque mutation by the 2006 season. This is similar to how the incidence of deviations from nuclear fallout slowly diminished during the first ten generations after “Tribulation.” Slowly, the deviational creatures were pruned out of Waknuk, but on a wider scale, vegetation returned to areas that were like terrain from another planet. There were four distinctive areas southwest of Waknuk and Labrador; the Wild Country, the Fringes, the Badlands and the Black Coasts; where the land is like black glass and resultantly seems to glow dimly at night. Each were progressively more deviated. The Fringes were once Black Coasts, the Wild Country was once Fringes territory, and Waknuk was once part of the Wild Country. The “Tribulation,” in the words of the Sealand woman, was to show the “Old People” that “the essential quality of life is living; the essential quality of living is change and change is evolution” (p. 196).