6.7 Making choices about technology

Advantages and disadvantages in the use of cloning and genetic engineering. 

• Advantages
• Cloning cattle can produce herds of cattle with useful characteristics
• Adult cell cloning may be used to make copies of the best animals, e.g. race horses
• people who have faulty genes causing a genetic disorder could be cured by transferring the correct gene.
• Several medical drugs have been produced by genetic engineering, such as insulin and antibodies
• GM crops include ones which are resistant to herbicides or to insects                                                 
• Disadvantages
• GM crops have a bigger yield, but farmers have to buy new GM seed every year because the crops are infertile.  
• Some people are concerned about accidentally introducing genes into wild flower populations
• Insects which are not pests may be affected by GM crops.
• Many people worry about the effect of eating GM crops on human health. And argue about whether or not cloning and genetic engineering are ethical.
• What will be the long-term effects? , Will we create new organisms that we know nothing about? , Are these processes ethically correct?