Argumentative Essay On Transgenic Animals

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Transgenic Animals A transgenic animal is an animal that has a gene from another species and that gene is expressed in the foreign organism. A transgenic trait can be used to benefit humans and animals. It can also increase the efficiency of the animal. As the more common transgenic animals become, the more controversy is tagged along with the debate. Some of the questions that have been raised: Are they safe? How will this affect the animal in the long run? Is this research ethically just? What does the Bible say about manipulating the genomes of various species? Since we are ‘playing’ God, questions like these need to be answered with sufficient answers. There are two common methods for correctly transferring a specific gene from one “The major uses for transgenic farm animals are as bioreactors to produce useful pharmaceutical products.” (Klug, 398) This is very useful in today’s day and age because this could potentially reduce costs in the pharmacy industry. Cattle’s suffering from mastitis is a problem that dairy farms face while raising cattle. Antibiotics do not fight off the bacteria, Staphylococcus aureus which is the cause of mastitis. However researchers have found a gene that could break down the bacteria’s cell wall. That protein is lysostaphin. When this protein is recombined into the targeted genome, the cattle have shown to be resistant to mastitis. This is a breakthrough in science where research of transgenic animals has proven to benefit the life of animals. GloFish are fluorescently labeled zebrafish. These fish are different colors and fluoresce under UV light. Critics have declared that this is an abuse of our knowledge and understanding of transgenic animals. However researches have discovered that when the fish are placed in a contaminated tank with “heavy metal” the GloFish fluoresce. (Klug, 399) These fish have proven to be a bioassay that can determine if a tank is contaminated. Their genetically modified phenotype is an easy to see test result which determines how contaminated the water Genesis (1:11-12) Therefore it seems that God would want not want us to mix different ‘kinds’ together. However God said we are to be His caretakers of the earth. (Genesis 2:15) Therefore if we see a problem that could be fixed via transgenic engineering, we should do something about it. We should not watch the animal perish or suffer when we could have done something about it. We should do something if we can to save or benefit the animal that is in trouble. God gave us an intellectual ability to make critical decisions. Therefore we should continue to learn about science because if we put research like transgenic animals on hold we could lose everything to a disease or some other catastrophe. We should plan ahead because time will not always be on our

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