Genetics today is on the cutting edge of biological science, and scientists working in this area are involved in a wide variety of pursuits that will have profound implications for our future on this planet, with projects including the creation of new biologic entities, curing diseases, manufacturing synthetic versions of biologic substances, identifying different genetic codes and what they do, and perhaps finding a way to control that genetic information to produce animals with certain characteristics or without certain characteristics, including greater strength, resistance to disease, and a higher yield in meat, eggs, dairy products, or whatever they provide. Geneticists have already accomplished many of these things with grains, plants, and even certain farm animals. Such advances in medicine and biology offer great possibilities for future medical procedures and for entirely new procedures such as genetic splicing to create new forms of life for good or ill. These new possibilities bring with them great responsibility and require that experimentation and development in biology be conducted following ethical precepts. Some people are concerned about any and all forms of genetic engineering, as if the danger was just too great. The most recent flap has concerned the possibility of the cloning of human beings. One can support a variety of approaches to genetic engineering involving gene splicing and recombinant DNA research and still oppose human cloning, and a clear distinction can be made between these types of research, though they are linked and constitute a progression in scientific development.
Recombinant DNA is DNA molecules derived from different sources that have been artificially spliced together in vitro to form novel hybrid DNA molecules not normally encountered in nature. Modern genetic engineering techniques based on recombinant DNA permit genetic exchanges between species that do not normally interbreed t...