Questionnaire/Survey!

Hai!

So, there's an essay-of-sorts I'm working on, and I would love to hear your answers.

So, I'm a Biotechnological Engineering student and there're modules on genetics and genetic engineering, and I would love to have your opinions on that. It's pretty general, and doesn't require much scienceness.
One thing I stress is that please do not read up on any of the related topics before answering. It's only so that I get an honest opinion.


Questions:

Gender:
Middle/High school/year in college:
-> If college, major:
Educational info on life-sciences:

What do you think genetic engineering is?

What do you think genetically modified organisms are?

Do you have an idea of 'how' genetic engineering is done?

Do you think it should be done or not? (I would like a couple lines supporting your answer)

Should there be social/legal constraints? If yes, then what/how?

What do you think are any short and long term effects on health and the environment?

What do you think of human genes in plants/animals that we consume?

What do you think of animal genes in plants?

Do you know of any genetically modified products.

What do you think can be achieved using genetic engineering? (Good and bad points!)

You don't have to answer all of these.
Thank you for helping me out! ^^

Gender: Female
Middle/High school/year in college: 2nd year
-> If college, major: Advertising
Educational info on life-sciences: Highschool with the odd scientific journal.

What do you think genetic engineering is?
Modifying the DNA of an organism to produce desired traits artificially

What do you think genetically modified organisms are?
In part artificial.

Do you have an idea of 'how' genetic engineering is done?
Some; I know some types involve viruses while others involve modifying the DNA sequence directly (I think)

Do you think it should be done or not? (I would like a couple lines supporting your answer)
Depends on what it's doing.

I'm for genetic modification when it brings more genetic variety into a gene pool. Then, it helps increase the resilience of a spices and improve the chances of long-term survival. Maybe if it helps remove a genetic disease more quickly, or increase the survival rate of a population (in such a way the situation won't change and the genetic modification will be useless/a hinderance).

I'm against it in pretty much all other circumstances because the world survived just fine without humans having a hand in genetic engineering for a few billion years, and I think messing with the genetics forcefully would just throw the planet out of balance.

Should there be social/legal constraints? If yes, then what/how?
Hands off humans is my big one. Also, anything that would get rid of small, family farms and make it harder for the social order to change because only the rich can afford to meet any standards that are only reachable thanks to genetic engineering.

What do you think are any short and long term effects on health and the environment?
Loss of biodiversity, making a population less resilient to disease and more prone to extinction, giving illnesses (primarily viruses) a reason to mutate.

What do you think of human genes in plants/animals that we consume?
... First reaction was "ew" but then I remembered how many genes humans share with other life forms already, then it depends on what you mean. If you do indeed mean placing human genes in plants/animals, then a pretty simple "no".

What do you think of animal genes in plants?
See above but replace the nouns. If a gene was only found in one species it should stay there.

Do you know of any genetically modified products.
Unfortunately, most food you get at the grocery store. Tomatoes are the first off the top of my head.

What do you think can be achieved using genetic engineering? (Good and bad points!)
Extinction, new super-bugs, going back to Victorian social order (a small percent of the population controlling most of the wealth), being so used to perfection achieved through genetic engineering that we can't appreciate anything not genetic engineered, eradication of some viruses and genetic illnesses.
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Gender: Female

Middle/High school/year in college: Just finished 3rd and final year of university, graduating in Ecology (BSc)

Educational info on life-sciences: Plenty of journals, books, lectures, seminars, field-trips, etc. I know a little on the related environmental law, too.

What do you think genetic engineering is? Inserting genes for desired characteristics into an organism's DNA.

What do you think genetically modified organisms are? Organisms which contain 'foreign' DNA, they are hybrids and I wouldn't consider them to be a 'true' form of their original organism (if that makes sense?) I would say not quite natural, but what natural actually means is a long source of discussion.

Do you have an idea of 'how' genetic engineering is done? If you asked me three years ago I could have said yes; while I was still in school we did some of the very very basics, putting that jellyfish gene for glowing into a petri dish of bacteria. The actual logistics and technique and compounds involved I can't remember though, I have my old text book sat on the shelf behind me, and I'll probably go read up on it once I'm done with this. I think it involved heating them up to a particular temperature, adding one compound to open up the DNA, then the gene we wanted to insert along with a binder, and then something else added to close up the DNA again. Actually, I think it may have been more like five-six years ago I did that experiment.

Do you think it should be done or not?: Yes and no. If I'm not mistaken, insulin used by diabetics is produced by genetically altered bacterium, and seeing as I've sorta stuck foreign DNA into something myself I'd feel like a hypocrite to say no, because it was very exciting and I was very disappointed when our creation had to be put into the autoclave. In that sense, from a medical stand-point, for the creation of medicines I'm very much for it. My main concerns are to do with genetically altered organisms that would enter the food chain, or get out into the wild.

Should there be social/legal constraints? If yes, then what/how? Yes. I think that engineering for the simple sake of novelty should be out-ruled (meaning more commercially, for proper legitimate research it would be okay, although I guess in that case it would no longer be 'novelty'). I'm not entirely happy with it being in foodstuffs, but I'm more of the opinion that many farming methods are already too intense and, if anything, we should be encouraging lower but less destructive productivity.

What do you think are any short and long term effects on health and the environment? This is where it really concerns me, because I have my ecologist hat on. GM genes breaking out 'into the wild' as it were and cross-pollinating is a big concern for me, because depending on your definition of what a species is, it could lead to extinctions of populations. In conservation at least, hybrids of sub-species cannot be released into the wild; it is considered irresponsible to do so because you're altering the gene pool in a manner that isn't really natural and effectively 'losing' species in the process (this is especially true of small populations). Farmers don't always leave the required amount of space between GM crops and non-GM ones, even if they're supposed to. My other concern is with insecticide resistance; some plants contain a natural insect repellant and I have read talk of this gene being engineered into other commercial plants to save the need for spraying, but surely once insects were to gain a resistance to the insecticide, not only is it useless but the plant that once had a natural defence no-longer does. I'm much more of a fan of biological control, although I can see how genetic modification can help play a role in that; I think that when controlling screw-fly outbreaks, the released insects have been radiated to they're sterilised, but I have read some talk of genetic modification possibly being used instead.

What do you think of human genes in plants/animals that we consume? For me, it depends why it's there. Engineering soley for economic of commercial gain I'm not too keen on, but for medical purposes I'm much more lenient. Even then, I'm not too sure how I'd feel if it were in the typical product you were to find on the shelf. I don't know how much research there's been into any long-term effects of genetic engineering on the organisms themselves or things that consume them.

What do you think of animal genes in plants? Pretty much the same as above, if the plants were being used to create medicines, I'd likely had no problem (again, as long as there was strict control to prevent the genes from entering the native population). Food-wise, I'd probably still have an issue.

Do you know of any genetically modified products. On the market, in the EU? No. If a product contains a GM ingredient, it has to be labelled as such here, but I've yet to ever see something that does. I know that animals that have eaten GM feed don't have to be labelled as such and I'd be fine eating that. If I'm perfectly honest, if I actually had to I'd be alright eating a plate of GM food; it's not like the DNA from what we consume is absorbed into us anyway (at least, I don't think so .___.) so what would it really mean? Just getting a few minerals in a few different amounts? I'm not too savvy on human physiology, so idk.

What do you think can be achieved using genetic engineering? (Good and bad points!) I've mentioned a lot (I think?) but one benefit I can see is in research and I think is already done, in the sense that genes are put into research animals for particular trials and stuff. Again I guess for the it comes down to me happily being able to support it on the medical side of things, but being bit more cautious on the side with regards to it's consumption in the consumer market.

Gender: Female
Middle/High school/year in college: Just finished 2nd year university, studying Creative Writing and English

Educational info on life-sciences: Highschool and a little research into it for a science fiction novel

What do you think genetic engineering is? Where you manually change the DNA of a living organism in order to select certain traits or remove certain traits.

What do you think genetically modified organisms are? There's always going to be some risk factor and they're not natural but not a bad thing either. Some are perfectly normal, for example when a girl child is purposefully produced over a male. Others are crazy and unworkable such as Dolly the sheep, an attempted clone.

Do you have an idea of 'how' genetic engineering is done? No. Only my imagination and no actual knowledge.

Do you think it should be done or not? I think it should be done. There's going to be a lot of mistakes and some pretty horrendous outcomes along the way but the final outcome will be worth it. I think there needs to be limits. It should never become a cosmetic thing and should instead be used for health reasons. I'd certainly like the option to guarantee that my sons won't be born with aspergers or any other form of autism. Oh and I'm biased since I'm very likely to be a carrier of aspergers. Also, as far as animals/ plants is concerned, it's another step up from selective breeding and as long as it's explored with care be people who know what they're doing, I'm fine with it.

Should there be social/legal constraints? If yes, then what/how? Yes. There should be set rules whereby it's an immediate yes and the legal side is more formality than anything else. This would be in the case of extreme life-limiting disabilities. And then another step down where a magistrate would decide if it is really a necessity. And as I mentioned before, it should never become cosmetic or frivolous. It should be treated as a serious step.

What do you think are any short and long term effects on health and the environment? Short term effects I think would be bad as there's bound to be mistakes early on. Long term effects I'm in two minds over. One one side I think it would be a real breakthrough in health and environment as the plants would be more cultivated, more productive etc and the people would be free of some of the worst life-limiting diseases. On the other side, part of my mind is screaming apocalypse, whether virus related or simply some pure super race that outsmarts itself to extinction.

What do you think of human genes in plants/animals that we consume?

I'm not sure. I hadn't realised this was an option. Human genes. Well it wouldn't be canabalism or anything along those lines and if it helped make the plants healthier and more productive, I'm open to it. I'm less sure about putting human genes into animals. Would that, could that ever lead to them breeding a higher level of consciouss? That would worry me as it would make the wild animals all the more like pets. While they're farm animals and they're well treated, I'm quite happy to eat them but just looking at the influence that our selective breeding has had on creating cats and dogs and thinking what human DNA actually inserted into them might do. I don't know.

What do you think of animal genes in plants? I'm pretty much okay with that.

Do you know of any genetically modified products. Uh... insulin? I think I read about that vaguely somewhere. Other than that, I don't really know.

What do you think can be achieved using genetic engineering?
Good: Healthier, more productive plants and animals. Humans without defective genes.
Bad: Zombie apocalypse! Plants or animals with a level of intelligence high enough to take over the world. Humans missing vital genes they need to survive or alternatively a super race of humans. Super bugs. Things like that.

Gender: Female
Middle/High school/year in college: Recent Grad. Received a Bachelor's of Science.
-> If college, major: Biochemical Engineering
Educational info on life-sciences: I am not sure what this means...

What do you think genetic engineering is?

Um. It can be several things. The short answer is that any time you deliberately try to change around the nucleic structure of the organism from the wild-type.

What do you think genetically modified organisms are?

Organisms which have specific changes in their nucleic structures which is different from the wild-type organisms. These changes can occur through

Do you have an idea of 'how' genetic engineering is done?

Yes. And it varies depending on what exactly you want to do. For instance, let's say you want a hard tomato that doesn't squish when it falls off the truck. What you can do is genetically select for the tomato -- basically, you pick a hard tomato, breed it, collect the seeds, grow the seeds, pick the hard tomatoes produced (there will be soft tomatoes as well), collect the seeds... etc., etc. Other times, it might be good to come up with a library of different organisms -- let's go with E. coli here, just because I like E. coli. What you do is you stress them out (chemically, with heat, with radiation, etc.) and then you dump some random genes into their mix and see what they pick up, since they are so stressed out they'll start picking up any genes they can. It's awesome. That's insertional mutanegensis.. you can also do that to insert a particular gene into the organism. We did that with tobacco plants, in particular. It was awesome. We also tried to do an E.coli fermentation that was supposed to incorporate the GFP gene into it... yeah. Didn't quite work. Whoooops.

Do you think it should be done or not? (I would like a couple lines supporting your answer)

Yes. If there was no genetic engineering, we would have more people starving. Part of the reason why we have such a high crop yield is because genetic engineering allows for the maximum yield to take place, even in drought conditions. Also, genetic engineering can actually remove the need for pesticides in farm crops. By having a gene that discourages fungi and insects to eat the crops, the plants can live better. Organic food companies usually use genetically engineered crops for this reason -- they can't legally use pesticides on their farms, so they rely on these GMO crops to eliminate the need for pesticides. Genetic engineering has also made it possible for many medicines to be made. Human insulin was the first protein was made from genetic engineering. The protein was put into some CHO cells, I believe, and that's what spurred on that movement. Before then, diabetics had to rely on cadaver blood or pig blood for their insulin requirements, and very often there were complications associated with that. And since then, many more drugs can be made this way. By the way, it seems like the next big thing is having these biomolecules being made from crops. Yes. Plants can fold these proteins too, and much more efficiently than companies can do so now.

Should there be social/legal constraints? If yes, then what/how?

Yes. Basically, if you make something specific that is a consumer product, you should be able to guarantee that you produced what you said you would, not anything more or less. Also, you should not engineer anything that would be ethically wrong or that diminishes the dignity of humans in any way, shape, or form. Also... there are concerns with cross pollination. But, there have been several studies done about this, and it looks like this won't be a very big problem for long.

What do you think are any short and long term effects on health and the environment?

Longterm, it would be better. The insects, instead of being indiscriminately killed off with dangerous chemicals (that are dangerous to us as well!) can live elsewhere... they just won't eat the plants. Good deal, right? You can argue that the insects can evolve too, but... well... the insects will evolve slower because they are complicated organisms. Plus, the plants will evolve to meet those insects too. Also, the rise of medicines produced by genetic engineering have saved millions of people so far and make them live happier, healthier lives. It's a good thing. There are several problems, of course, but mostly in the short term... cross pollination, for one. But, they've come up with some pretty cool solutions to that, so yay? It'll be figured out in the longterm, that's all. Also, poor countries are struggling to use genetic engineering to increase their crop yield, but because of war, poverty, or just crummy conditions, this can be very difficult to accomplish. So, the people who need it the most can't have it. But, that needs more than just a genetic engineering solution.

What do you think of human genes in plants/animals that we consume?

This is going against the human dignity part, so we shouldn't ever do this. The exception is human medicine... as long as it helps humans and doesn't turn the plants/animals/organisms into a human, then it's okay.

What do you think of animal genes in plants?

Only if it's useful and doesn't end up harming the animal in an unethical way.

Do you know of any genetically modified products.

Haha. Well, in the United States, we're not required to label anything that is genetically modified... a good thing or a lot of people would freak out! But, pretty much everything we eat is genetically modified in some form or another nowadays. It's just not economical to be non-GMO.

What do you think can be achieved using genetic engineering? (Good and bad points!)

Good: Food! Medicine! Awesomeness!

Bad: We might accidentally create some really nasty organisms.

Also, we should avoid making dinosaurs.