Transcript for:
Ethical Issues in Genetic Manipulation

welcome biologists in this session we're going to take a look at spec Point G for manipulating genomes where we've got look at the ethical issues of genetic manipulation of plant animal and microorganisms and there are a couple of ones identified here in the spec point that we have to know about and those are the ones we're going to look at in this video the first one we need to know about is how we can ches the modified sawy so that it's insect resistant so what they do here is they modify the soil so it produces a protein called a BT protein now this BT protein acts as an insecticide because it kills off insects uh this is because the protein is toxic to the insects so therefore any insect that feeds on the soil will die also a benefit to this for Farmers is that this uh protein allows the plant to become resistant to weed killer which is fantastic for Farmers because they can spray the crops with weed killer and it means this modified soy won't be impacted by this now some advantages and disadvantages here so first of all it's really commonly using organic farming because you don't have to spray pesticides on your plant to kill off any um insects you also get a higher yield of crops because they're not being eaten by the insects it's less um expense spent on first of all insecticide but also um you get less labor as well so less expense there however against this um because the pest insects um are dying off there might be impacts on their predators and also damaging damaged by the toxins made from that BT protein to the Predators as well that survive and eat on those insects the insects might actually become resistant to the BT protein and also genes might spread to Wild populations resulting in a super weed that can't be killed off or eaten by insects it does also reduce the biodiversity because you are killing off insect populations and you are growing one main plant which is soy um the main ethical issues here are painting issues which we'll look at in a couple of slides uh the next one is we can genetically modify pathogens for research so this is where scientists can modify pathogens to help uh to develop medical treatment uh and also study what would happen to a pathogen um during this manipulation and how we can prepare for that um now this is really helpful because it helps us to study for epidemiological research so that's just what I mentioned there in terms of how we can U study these pathogens to see what how they could change in the future and how we could help prepare for that however against this there's big health and safety risks here for the researcher and also the wider public because you're modifying pathogens you could also like create something here that is potentially you know like pandemic style um where it can affect wide areas of of people at the same time so the main ethical reason here is that we we could technically use this for biological warfare which is obviously something that we don't want uh the next thing we need to know about is farming this is where we can genetically modify animals uh creating what's known as a transgenic organism a transgenic organism is something that has two different types of genetic information inside it such as this example here where we have some picss that have been genetically enged to express Express a faty acid which is found in spinach so it's trying to make that um meat slightly healthier for you uh now advantages for this is that the animal that does have that desired Gene could either have whatever benefit you've put in there in terms of what that desire Gene is that now that Desir Gene could potentially lead to a decrease in disease risk such as um the swine reducing swine flowing in pigs we could end up with a faster growth rate for example in in Salmon guns grow to adult size fairly quickly so they can be harvested but also a production of uh human protein in milk that can um that we can Harvest as well um against we have some unknown areas here in terms of genetic modification and then we do have ethical concerns here so is it right to manipulate the genes of animals um is creating transgenic animals going to cause them harm so that's not very well studied and also there might be a welfare risk to that animal as well paintting is the big one here really now paintting is where a company can create something that's NE modified for example a seed and they can paint in it to prevent it from um prevent others from using it without paying to use it um so the big thing here is the main ethical reasons around it so farmers who would benefit the most from these pay tented seeds for example they can grow in drought drought land with little water um these poorer farmers who need seed like this um for drought resistant and flood resistant crops to create that high yield they can't afford to buy these pained seeds on a yearly basis um because once that year is up you then have to destroy your old seed and get some new one and so advantages is this for the company really the company can benefit a lot from profits on the design of their genetic modified seed uh and against you can only use that painting the seed for a year and then a new one has to be bought so the main thing here is ethical issues and concerns which links into that first slide I showed you and that's really everything we need to know there about ethical issues surrounding genetic relation of plant and animals and microorganisms in the next video there are more ethical issues we need to look at surrounding gene therapy so guys good luck with your exams don't forget in your exams don't use the word itay amountain and size use as much biological terminology as possible and good luck