Impact of Recombinant DNA
By the time you start reading this impact statement, you've probably got
a good idea of what Recombinant DNA is, how rDNA is made, how rDNA works,
and some general places where rDNA is currently important. You should also
be able to see that Recombinant DNA is going to have a large impact on the
future. And like a lot of new science technology, Recombinant DNA has the
possibility to be used for "good" and "bad" purposes. There is a bit of grey
area here, as each person defines good and bad in a different way. The following
is a list of ways Recombinant DNA will impact the future, broken up into what are
commonly considered good and bad. It's okay if you don't agree with what is listed
as good and bad, and by thinking about the impact for yourself, you will find you
have an even better grasp of Recombinant DNA.
Good
- Improved Medicines
- Improved Livestock (resistance to disease)
- Improved Crops (resistance to disease, higher yields)
- Prevention of Genetic Diseases
- Lowering the cost of medicines (i.e. Insulin)
- Safer Medicines (i.e. Insulin)
- Treatment for pre-existing conditions (i.e. Cancer)
Bad
- Safety concerns (viruses developing antibiotic resistance)
- Environmental concerns (developing resistance to fungi)
- Ethical dilemmas over human treatment (i.e. are we playing God?)
- Potential for Experimental abus (doctors using patients as test subjects)
- Germline treatment going from treating diseases to a method for
picking the traits you want in a child (i.e. specifying hair and eye color)
Back to Recombinant DNA
Created by Matthew Kuure-Kinsey and Beth McCooey for Biochemical Engineering Fall 2000