This paper will examine the role of creating transgenic animals in today's society. This process and the resulting animals can be used for many reasons beyond just research for humans. The process can also be used to better a species through genetic mutation. After the animal's gene make-up is changed for the better, the animal would become stronger or better. They would then pass that mutated trait on to their offspring. This would make the animals population much stronger over a long period of time. The process could also cure diseases that the animal would not be able to normally combat against. The problem with this is that many people view this as the researchers playing the role of God or Mother Nature.
The general concerns surrounding transgenic animals are the harm that is being caused to the animals, whether the benefits of this research are ethical to human beliefs, and the status of the animal's own genetic make up. If we constantly make animals better, that animal's original form would become extinct. Some animal rights activists, according to Thomas A. Easton (2002), "argue that animals - especially mammals - have rights as important and as of deserving of animals used in research " (p. 269).
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How does the process work?.
The scientific term for what actually makes up an organisms genetic material is known as a genome. Transgenic animals are animals that have genetic information from a different species artificially inserted into their own genomes. The end result is often referred to as enhanced forms of the original animal. .
The first step in creating a transgenic animal is to identify and isolate the relevant gene or feature that you wish to change in the animal. The piece of DNA containing that gene is then inserted into a fertilized egg or embryo. According to the BUAV website (2000), "This can be achieved in a number of ways:.
1) Microinjection of the DNA into the pronucleus.