what are some of the advantages and disadvantages of altering the human genome?
140260
Two commonly overlooked disadvantages could be a thinning out of the gene pool (as fads come into play, people start choosing very similar genetic structures for their children to have, resulting in loss of individualism as well as sexual reproduction of similar beings leading to abnormalities in the same way incest sometimes does), and overpopulation, as common genetic defects cause some people to be less likely to survive in our environment, it keeps population growth lower than it would if we averaged at a 150+ year life span.\n\nAlso, in the event of a change in environment, the concurrent views on how genes should be altered would be counterproductive to an adaptation by the human body in order to cope with that environmental change.
767308
It could open up reproductive possibilities for sterile couples. It could help reduce instances of genetic diseases such as Down's Syndrome or sickle cell anemia. Switching tracks a little, cloning individual organs (not whole humans) could help improve transplant stock, not only by creating more organs for transplant, but also by cutting down on instances of organ rejection. \n\nRemember, though: no one is talking about actually cloning humans these days. Those genetic experts who are involved in cloning projects are either concerned with animals, organs, or single-cell organisms. Hope this helps put the question into a little bit of perspective!
814062
advantages\nnew experiences\nnew climate\ndifferent change of pace\nnew perspectives\n\n\ndisadvantages\nmore money\nmore loans/debt\nmay not like it and then have to move back transfer which can be stressful and take time
47238
The genetic code is the basically the set of instructions for construction and functioning of an organism. If we can understand them, and how these instructions are used, then we can possibly correct and prevent genetic diseases and defects. We can understand and possibly prevent or slow aging. We might get a handle on problems like heart disease, cancer and other diseases which appear to have a genetic component. \n\nThis is the start of what could be the greatest set of technological advances ever in the history of humanity; developing the capacity to reengineer organisms, and maybe humanity itself in useful ways. We might be able to create humans with enhanced capabilities eventually. This is potentially extremely exciting, although like all scientific and technical advances, it is fraught with potential dangers as well.
1147433
nothing but two reasons\none is genetical. you cannot change\nother is the environment . bad water,(salt water),over usage of chemicals,shampoo etc
1170818
theoretical advantages of cloning are as follows:\n\nimmortality or at least living thousands of years\n\nendangered species whose demise came directly a result of man\n\nhuman parts factories, where faulty human parts be replaced\n\nstem cells\n\nslaves?\n\nnew friends\n\nclone yourself to make a rival\n\nclone yourself young to make youself forever young... \n\ncreating a clone army to fight for you( or your country) or cause....\n\n individual parts youve cloned can become part of each other in a working organism... theoretically if we can have transplants that become a part of our body without rejecting them.... then we can create our own frankensteins... and living creatures... \n\nif someone had a miscarriage, and wanted that baby\n\ncloning certain genetic information from different people, that is biologically superior or more efficient, and putting those together in a single person  to make a  kindof superhuman....\n\ncloning cancerous cells that can be injected into enemys \n\ncsi- cloning the subject from a hair or other human remnant containing dna.... \n\nseeing what organism from the past would look like by recreating them... hopefully there would be a way to overcome faulty the dna these subjects....\n\nunlawful recreations of celebritys to be used for individual purposes....\n\nmass cloning- for things as insects that eat other insects... like a kindof pesticide.... or to counter attack swarms of anything... locusts,etc\n\ncreating a living creature battery... using their energy to run your device.... and merely feeding them to ensure further energy production... \n\ncloning the genetic isolates from people that make them resistant to things such as aids...\n\nanyway... the list could go on forever...
560742
Advantages: Improved crop yield with better nutrition of the food, curing diseases, preventing diseases.\n\nDisadvantages: For crops, the economic reality is that we produce too much food as it is.  America has an ENORMOUS amount of surplus food. Better nutrition? Nice idea but farmers want to grow more, not better.
1005411
Yes, it will be possible to alter human genes and their expression. Research into gene therapy offers hope to people affected with genetic disorders, e.g. Huntington's Disease and Cystic Fibrosis. WRT preventing death, I think that human life span will be greatly increased, for rich people anyway. This will cause a lot of problems for the rest of the world's population, leading to resource shortages. People can be very selfish and greedy and will justify to themselves their right to an extended life time. Death is part of the natural life cycle. In saying that, I still wish people the chance to a peaceful and happy life and not to die before their time. However,  unless we can sustain ourselves in space and find other planets that support life, we will need to die at 90-100 years, to make room and leave resources for the next generations.
24788
there are many mutations that happened to be beneficial to humans. for example, sickle cell anemia mutations created a positive effect in africa where malaria was prevalent
28455
Disadvantages: People will deem clones to have no souls and use them in immoral ways.\n\nAdvantages: None.\n\nI can see no benefit to the actual cloning of a human being. The benefit comes from the knowledge gained from cloning. Once we have the ability to clone a human being, we can specialize in cloning just the parts that we need.\n\nImagine a person with lungs and a heart damaged from disease or an accident. Doctors can clone just the heart and lungs from the patient's own DNA and transplant them. No waiting for donors and no organ rejection.\n\nHow about cloning gallons of untainted blood as needed? No more need for donors, storage, or disease testing. Even rare blood types can be cloned as needed.
320780
At this point in time it isn't really possible.  in theory it is though.  we can manipulate chromosomes in bacteria and viruses and engineer plants to contain more vitamins or be bacteria resistant but humans are different.  tampering with humans brings up a whole array of ethical questions.  If we were to 'engineer' humans to be faster, smarter and such we would have to select for those traits we want from people who possess these qualities and 'insert' that trait into the chromosome of the subject.  in theory we could do much more with this technology.  Currently this technology is a near vision at best.  \n\n~Chris~
711961
Hi Genetic engineering is done with a purpose, for making human insulin by the use of bacteria for instance. Genetic modification can be caused by an errant cosmic ray.
454887
The disadvantages is that something might go awry, your clone might commit a crime and the one being caught is you. The clone knows your secrets and might betray you, he knows your feelings and weaknesses and can overpower you. Human cloning also resembles the making of another person which is forbidden by some religions as only God can create lives, not men. If men clone, they are implying that they are omnipotent which they are not.
240837
there are plenty of sites on genetic engineering and i have listed one below but some things seem better with modification for instance pigs produce vast amount of phosphorous which screws up our environment with a modification they can be grown with a change in their saliva to prevent that which makes for a better greener world, we use plastic surgery to make changes for the better, some things need the change.
943706
Genetic engineering, genetic modification (GM) and gene splicing are terms for the process of manipulating genes, usually outside the organism's natural reproductive process.\n\nIt involves the isolation, manipulation and reintroduction of DNA into cells or model organisms, usually to express a protein. The aim is to introduce new characteristics or attributes physiologically or physically, such as making a crop resistant to a herbicide, introducing a novel trait, or producing a new protein or enzyme,along with altering the organism to produce more of certain traits. Examples can include the production of human insulin through the use of modified bacteria, the production of erythropoietin in Chinese Hamster Ovary cells, and the production of new types of experimental mice such as the OncoMouse (cancer mouse) for research, through genetic redesign.\n\nSince a protein is specified by a segment of DNA called a gene, future versions of that protein can be modified by changing the gene's underlying DNA. One way to do this is to isolate the piece of DNA containing the gene, precisely cut the gene out, and then reintroduce (splice) the gene into a different DNA segment. Daniel Nathans and Hamilton Smith received the 1978 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for their isolation of restriction endonucleases, which are able to cut DNA at specific sites. Together with ligase, which can join fragments of DNA together, restriction enzymes formed the initial basis of recombinant DNA technology.\n\nApplications --- :\n\nThe first Genetically Engineered drug was human insulin approved by the USA's FDA in 1982. Another early application of genetic engineering was to create human growth hormone as replacement for a drug that was previously extracted from human cadavers. In 1986 the FDA approved the first genetically engineered vaccine for humans, for hepatitis B. Since these early uses of the technology in medicine, the use of GE has expanded to supply many drugs and vaccines.\n\nOne of the best known applications of genetic engineering is that you can probilize the outcome of offspring. There are potentially momentous biotechnological applications of GM, for example oral vaccines produced naturally in fruit, at very low cost.\n\nA radical ambition of some groups is human enhancement via genetics, eventually by molecular engineering. See also: transhumanism.\n\nGenetic engineering and research\nAlthough there has been a tremendous revolution in the biological sciences in the past twenty years, there is still a great deal that remains to be discovered. The completion of the sequencing of the human genome, as well as the genomes of most agriculturally and scientifically important plants and animals, has increased the possibilities of genetic research immeasurably. Expedient and inexpensive access to comprehensive genetic data has become a reality with billions of sequenced nucleotides already online and annotated. Now that the rapid sequencing of arbitrarily large genomes has become a simple, if not trivial affair, a much greater challenge will be elucidating function of the extraordinarily complex web of interacting proteins, dubbed the proteome, that constitutes and powers all living things. Genetic engineering has become the gold standard in protein research, and major research progress has been made using a wide variety of techniques, including:\n\nLoss of function, such as in a knockout experiment, in which an organism is engineered to lack the activity of one or more genes. This allows the experimenter to analyze the defects caused by this mutation, and can be considerably useful in unearthing the function of a gene. It is used especially frequently in developmental biology. A knockout experiment involves the creation and manipulation of a DNA construct in vitro, which, in a simple knockout, consists of a copy of the desired gene which has been slightly altered such as to cripple its function. The construct is then taken up by
682615
Ethical issues in cloning include the following:\n\nFirst, there were many issues with Dolly the sheep.  Dolly aged much quicker than a normal sheep.  Some scientists think this was due to the shortening telomeres from Dolly's cloned DNA.  The telomere theory is complicated, so I won't go into it here.  Suffice to say that there MIGHT be health consequences if we clone humans.  Most ethicicsts think we should resolve all those issues rather than let some unfortunate cloned people be the guiniea pigs.\n\nSecond, there are many moral implications.  Would the cloned child have psychological or emotional problems knowing that he/she was not conceived in the traditional way?  Who would be the child's father?  Mother?  Other objections to cloning are of a categorical variety.  In other words, we shouldn't clone simply because it's weird.  Some people think we should not screw around with human nature.  We shouldn't be engineering people's genetics, and we shouldn't be copying people genetically for research or mere curiosity.\n\nBecause there are so many questions involving the effects of cloning I think we should not do it.  The biggest reason we should stay away is because there really is no compelling reason TO do it.  Why would you want to clone someone?  The only logical reason I have heard is that you can create a human that is genetically identical (or close to it) to someone with a serious or fatal medical condition.  Then you can be absolutely sure the the clone could share blood or organs or with the sick person.  I think it's a bit cruel to create a person solely for the intention of curing someone else.  It's just not fair to the unfortunate clone who not only has to give up his organ or blood or whatever, but he also has to deal with the stigma of being a clone.\n\nThe issues are much more complex than I have stated.  This was a cursory examination of a very, very complex topic.  It is really fascinating, though, and I encourage you to keep researching.  There are great books on the subject, and tons of opinions on the web.\n\nOne final issue is what effect would this have on our society?  Would we reduce our genetic variation if we started cloning on a large-scale basis?  Would that leave us more susceptible to genetic diseases because we have decreased the variability?  Would cloning alter our perception of humanity and the sanctity of life?  Would we devalue the individual since we could theoretically just copy a new one?
689574
Pros: \n\n1. Advancing the cause and understanding of cloning science.\n2. Creating new resources.\n3. Restoring a lost species to the world.\n4. The opportunity to learn about a lost species first-hand.\n5. Fame.\n\nCons:\n\n1. The potential to wreak havoc with an ecosystem that has adapted to the absence of the creature.\n2. The potential for the introduction of a new virus or germ.\n3. Bringing another animal into a world where people are wiping them out wholesale.\n4. Religious protest.\n5. Jurassic Park 4.