  |
|
|
|
MORE MERCENARY SCIENCE
There already are transgenic cows that produce milk missing one component that causes allergies in a number of consumers. Also, pigs have been engineered with a cow protein that protects them against gastroenteritis. These two new man-made species can be justified for economic reasons; and, besides, neither cows or pigs have, in general, been considered house pets so their creation has not being highly criticized. However, the genetic modification of animals with economic uses poses other problems. Putting aside the question that if, just because we can, we should modify them for our own satisfaction and benefit, there is the problem of changing the environment and as, a consequence, man’s own future. For example, there are GM lobsters and salmon that are not only much bigger than the normal ones but reproduce faster. Thus, their release into the environment could do away with the non-modified ones and other fish species, since they eat more and reproduce faster. This in turn could endanger the fishing industry. Thus, one can easily visualize the potential problems that the creation of superespecies represents to humankind. The companies that produce superespecies claim they will keep them isolated, but everybody knows that the confinement of biological species is practically impossible, particularly at sea. Thus, any accident, bioterrorist act, natural disaster or carelessness by the caretakers could release them and there will be no turning back. As examples of what could happen you should know that on the island of Guam, in the Pacific, there are practically no birds. The reason is that some forty years ago a few snakes came off a ship onto which they had come aboard unnoticed. Since in Guam there were no natural predators of those snakes (animals that prey on them), they rapidly reproduced with the mentioned consequences. In Australia and New Zealand an uncountable number of biological species have disappeared and continue to disappear because of the introduction, authorized or not, of exogenous species that also do not have natural predators on those islands or that reproduce much faster than the indigenous ones.
The copyright of the article MOLECULAR AND CELULLAR MEDICINE ADVANCES = ETERNAL YOUTH? in Molecular Biology/Medicine is owned by Juan C. Mendible. Permission to republish MOLECULAR AND CELULLAR MEDICINE ADVANCES = ETERNAL YOUTH? in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
|
|
|
|
