Pros And Cons Of Modifying Animals

GMO is an organism in which the genetic material has been altered in a way that does not occur naturally. Scientist have been taking a piece of genetic material from one organism (plants or animals) and putting it in a chromosome of a animal. Genetically modifying animals have been around since the 1970’s. “Genetic engineering is able to create whole organisms that are not natural to the planet, and whose specific genetic make-up is as much a result of human manipulation as it is natural selection.” (Perzigian, animallaw) So what's the issue with it all of a sudden? Is finding out what we can do with these animals a bad thing? There's a two sides to every story, the good side that says we should continue with modifying these animals, and a …show more content…
Animals such as farm animals have been engineered to resist disease, grow faster, and reproduce better than past generations. Adding a trait that can fasten the process of breeding the desired genotype can be created into that current generation instead of having to wait for that trait to be brought out or the offspring has to reach that maturity stage to bred. Saving animals that are near extinction can be saved by fast reproduction. Breeding though can be super random on what genes they get from each parent. So with modifying them they can be be more predictable. Genetic Modifying them moves discrete genes or blocks of genes at a time. For example the growth of genetically modified salmon can make the salmon grow larger from their offspring before. Almost 3x the length that they usually are. These traits that are transferred can be more predictable for the scientist the wondering how big these baby salmon will grow. This example shows that having a more predictable reproduction can benefit our research and the way that animals can reproduce faster can help animals from going