</p><B> 3. Is there an order for you in terms of ethics regarding gene manipulation performed on bacteria, plants, animals (except humans)? If yes give a score for each group (1 is least ethical).</B></p>
</p><B> 3. Is there an order for you in terms of ethics regarding gene manipulation performed on bacteria, plants, animals (except humans)? If yes give a score for each group (1 is least ethical).</B></p>
</p>-YES -NO</p>
</p>-YES -NO</p>
-
</p>-Bacteria -Plants A-nimals </p>
+
</p>-Bacteria -Plants -Animals </p>
</p> <i> Least ethical for animals but nobody cares how would a bacteria feel like. </i> </p>
</p> <i> Least ethical for animals but nobody cares how would a bacteria feel like. </i> </p>
</p><B>4. Could you list one or two main potential risks (for health, environment) arising from the use of genetically modified organisms. </B></p>
</p><B>4. Could you list one or two main potential risks (for health, environment) arising from the use of genetically modified organisms. </B></p>
Line 54:
Line 54:
</p>-for environment:</p>
</p>-for environment:</p>
</p></p>
</p></p>
-
</p> <i> Most of the answers were too general and focused around the words “uncontrolled”, “unpredictable” and “side effects”. Did Hollywood have its contribution? </i> </p>
+
</p> <i> Most of the answers were too general and focused around the words “uncontrolled”, “unpredictable” and “side effects”. When talking about health risks, the usually discussed ones are, for instance, the accidental production and release into the environment of bacterial pathogens (or bacteria producing toxins, antibiotics). Debated risk for GM crops are supposed to be potential allergenic effects determined by the new genes, the potential of passing antibiotic resistance genes to bacteria inhabiting the human gut. Regarding environmental risks, the most prominent one is the potential production of new organisms (for instance harboring several resistance genes) able to compete and substitute the natural ones from the environment potentially destabilizing entire ecosystems (production of super-weeds can be mentioned in this context). Probably, the main ethical concern regarding gene modification is the crossing of the species boundaries by using genes from various organisms which can be in contradiction with how God planned everything. It is just important to mention, that some of the postulated risks are really improbable from the scientific point of view, whereas for others the best approach would be a careful one (even more than necessary). </i> </p>
</p> <B>5. Synthetic biology represents the design and construction of new biological entities such as enzymes, genetic circuits, and cells, or the redesign of existing biological systems for a specific use. Do you think there are any ethical restrictions to practicing it? </B> </p>
</p> <B>5. Synthetic biology represents the design and construction of new biological entities such as enzymes, genetic circuits, and cells, or the redesign of existing biological systems for a specific use. Do you think there are any ethical restrictions to practicing it? </B> </p>
Nowadays the production and use of genetically modified organisms (GMO’s) let them be plants, animals or any other living beings are viewed with big precaution by most societies. There are multiple reasons why people are not accepting this products some of them accompanied by sound scientific arguments, whereas others by wrong understanding and fears fueled by mass-media.
On one hand the people having nothing in common with biological sciences do not always know all the scientific background behind the problem, on the other hand, “bio people” in knowledge of the problem may be considered biased because their profession is usually their interest, belief and not last - their source of income. As society and scientists looks for compromise, there is a big effort all over the world to create the legislative frame which will ensure the careful manipulation of GMO’s in environment, medicine, industry, in order to show respect for the people's opinion on this issue.
Synthetic biology is also about genetic manipulation – combining genes or fragments of genes from all kinds of life forms, modifying them in order to produce enhanced organisms able to be used for the sake of the mankind. Regardless of how noble the aims can be, it is necessary to consider the ethical questions arising from this kind of projects.
In the middle of all this fuss about gene manipulation here comes a synthetic biology competition among STUDENTS !! which offers the chance to apply into practice ambitious concepts harbored by their imagination (which is sometimes OK and sometimes NOT :) . This is an issue that is likely to rise questions from society's part, that’s why there stays a special requirement to accurately consider the ethical and safety aspects of each individual IGEM project.
In order to get a feeling of how society views genetic engineering, synthetic biology, the IGEM competition and our project in particular we conducted a small survey among a pool of about 40 young people of age 22-30, of German or other origin (ratio of about 1:1) of biological and non-biological background (same ratio).
You can follow us through the questions... and comments
1. Do you regard genetic engineering as an absolute necessity for scientific research?
-YES -NO
About 90% answered yes which is actually the only right answer. Biology can’t move forward without altering the genes in so many ways to determine their functions and correlations with other genes in the cell, to enhance the products coded, etc. 2. Grade the areas below according to the need for approaches involving genetic engineering (you can use marks from 1 to 5, repeating marks allowed):
-medicine (research and therapy)
-environmental applications (e.g. fighting pollution, extracting salts from soil other)
-farming
-industry and energy
-other (you can also give your own application area)
Scores distributed approximately equally with most for medicine and least for farming. It is quite hard to decide which ones are the most important since nowadays humanity has major problems on all of these lines. Quality of medicine is obvious for a healthy society as is fighting and preventing pollution, however, the need for effective farming which might not be seen a problem today (when THERE ARE people dying of hunger), will definitely become more acute in the future. Same about supplying increasing amounts of energy and extraction/ recycling of scarce resources 3. Is there an order for you in terms of ethics regarding gene manipulation performed on bacteria, plants, animals (except humans)? If yes give a score for each group (1 is least ethical).
-YES -NO
-Bacteria -Plants -Animals
Least ethical for animals but nobody cares how would a bacteria feel like. 4. Could you list one or two main potential risks (for health, environment) arising from the use of genetically modified organisms.
-for health:
-for environment:
Most of the answers were too general and focused around the words “uncontrolled”, “unpredictable” and “side effects”. When talking about health risks, the usually discussed ones are, for instance, the accidental production and release into the environment of bacterial pathogens (or bacteria producing toxins, antibiotics). Debated risk for GM crops are supposed to be potential allergenic effects determined by the new genes, the potential of passing antibiotic resistance genes to bacteria inhabiting the human gut. Regarding environmental risks, the most prominent one is the potential production of new organisms (for instance harboring several resistance genes) able to compete and substitute the natural ones from the environment potentially destabilizing entire ecosystems (production of super-weeds can be mentioned in this context). Probably, the main ethical concern regarding gene modification is the crossing of the species boundaries by using genes from various organisms which can be in contradiction with how God planned everything. It is just important to mention, that some of the postulated risks are really improbable from the scientific point of view, whereas for others the best approach would be a careful one (even more than necessary). 5. Synthetic biology represents the design and construction of new biological entities such as enzymes, genetic circuits, and cells, or the redesign of existing biological systems for a specific use. Do you think there are any ethical restrictions to practicing it?
-YES -NO
More than 70 % think there ARE ethical restrictions. Oh yes, there are! Ask Craig Venter. 6. If yes do you think the potential advantages are overweighting the possible ethical problems.
-YES -NO
About 56% from the entire pool answered yes. Surely yes, but maybe we are to mad about IGEM for our opinion to be trusted. 7. How would you regard deliberate synthetic biology competitions among undergraduate students which include designing of genetically modified organisms with the aim to find solutions to various global problems.
-I approve -I disapprove
78% approved. Niiiice! We skipped telling that the team members SHOULD HAVE FUN doing their bacteria-Frankensteins! After all, it is kind of internal information. Still we have to be careful when walking home since there are 12% left which not really agree. Maybe we shouldn’t have weared all this time the IGEM badge?! Do you think the outcome is greater than the risks?
-YES -NO
87% think yes 9. Do you think that creation of bacterial based biosensors for testing isolated blood samples from humans for certain diseases is in contradiction with any known moral rules or is posing any significant risks?
-YES -NO
If Yes, please list some of them
97% answered NO (except 1 person). As expected! if it was a YES, we would have sent our T-shirts to the Jamboree (they are nice ) or would have faked the answer to this question or would have deleted it at all. But no, IT IS HERE.
Regarding the risks, I can only imagine glowing intestines, but don’t think too much over this… (these poor lab bacteria can’t leave their juicy LB).
10. If such biosensor systems would be much more sensitive than some of the currently used detection techniques and could make a big difference to the efficiency of disease diagnosis, would you grant its massive use along with the already established detection methods (considering that it is a transgenic organism)? 95% Yes. Straight way to thinking about a business GO, IGEMolution! (our official phrase during the Bioolympics event , copyrighted, you can’t use it without permission)
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