Positive effects
- Genetic engineering can be used to prolong lives by slowing down aging mechanisms (i.e. shortens telomeres).
- Diseases are removed through gene therapy, which involves replacing defected genes with normal ones.
- The Human Genome Project will make it possible for a person to be able to obtain their entire genetic heritage.
- Many non-human genetically-engineered organisms will not pose a threat to wildlife because many have been given death modules.
- Unlike pesticides, which kill thousands of people annually, genetically-modified crops consist of the same building blocks of life that we eat daily.
- Genetically-modified crops are a safer and more efficient alternative to selectively-bred and mutation-bred crops, which have been doused in chemicals.
Negative effects
- In gene therapy, the long-term effects of replacing genes have not been explored yet.
- If used for superficial reasons, engineering can decrease the genetic variation in our population, making us more susceptible to diseases and/or threats that we cannot adapt to due to the lack of variety.
- If misused, a "two-tier" society will most likely form. Meaning that those (usually the rich) who receive genetic modification will have an advantage over those who cannot afford or don't qualify for it.
- In many genetically engineered crops, the public is not permitted to know the genetically engineered "ingredients."
- Messing with genes can have catastrophic effects on family lines. When a gene is altered in a person, that person passes their altered genes down to their offspring.
- If placed into the wrong hands, genetic engineering could be used to create biological weapons.
- Population control would be needed once genetic engineering has developed enough to significantly prolong life.
- If transgenics (the process of transferring genes from one species to another) is used on humans, a strict line will have to be drawn on what constitutes a human and what doesn't.