{"id":14343,"date":"2024-01-28T14:42:39","date_gmt":"2024-01-28T11:42:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/masarat-sy.org\/?p=14343"},"modified":"2024-02-07T14:38:21","modified_gmt":"2024-02-07T11:38:21","slug":"genetic-engineering","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/masarat-sy.org\/en\/genetic-engineering\/","title":{"rendered":"Genetic Engineering: Bridging Science, Medicine, and Ethics"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-size: 14pt;\">In our current era, where <a href=\"https:\/\/masarat-sy.org\/en\/between-screens-and-parenting-finding-balance-in-the-age-of-technology\/\">technology<\/a> advances at a rapid pace, genetic engineering emerges as one of the most fascinating and controversial modern technologies. This article sheds light on this amazing technique and its complex details.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-size: 14pt;\">Through it, we explore how human, animal, and <a href=\"https:\/\/masarat-sy.org\/en\/genes-and-environment-how-they-shape-our-health-future\/\">microbial genes<\/a> are manipulated to achieve various purposes such as improving the understanding of gene functions, increasing the production of substances resulting from gene expression, and correcting genetic defects. We will learn about the technical mechanisms used in this field and how these technologies have impacted various sectors from medicine to agriculture and biopharmaceuticals.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-size: 14pt;\">Additionally, we delve into the ethical debate surrounding genetic engineering, which is an integral part of this topic. We will explore how these technologies face ethical challenges, especially in terms of intervening in the biological nature of living organisms and the potential impacts on the biological future of humanity.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><b>What is Genetic Engineering?<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-size: 14pt;\">\u00a0Genetic engineering is the technique that deals with:<\/span><\/p>\n<ol style=\"text-align: left;\">\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-size: 14pt;\">Human genes.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-size: 14pt;\">Animal genes.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-size: 14pt;\">Microbial genes.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-size: 14pt;\">Genetic units found on chromosomes by separating, connecting, or inserting parts of them from one organism to another with the purpose of:<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul style=\"text-align: left;\">\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-size: 14pt;\">Creating a state that enables understanding the function of a gene.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-size: 14pt;\">Aiming to increase the quantity of substances resulting from its expression.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-size: 14pt;\">Aiming to supplement what is missing from it in the target cell.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-size: 14pt;\">The most common form of genetic engineering requires isolating and copying the related genetic material, generating a construct that includes all genetic elements for the purpose of obtaining a correct genetic construct, and then introducing this construct into the host organism.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><b>Mechanism of Genetic Engineering Techniques\u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-size: 14pt;\">Genetic engineering techniques have been applied in several fields including:<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul style=\"text-align: left;\">\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-size: 14pt;\">Research.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-size: 14pt;\">Biotechnology.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-size: 14pt;\">Medicine.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-size: 14pt;\">Currently, drugs such as insulin and human growth hormone are produced in bacteria.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-size: 14pt;\">Test mice have been used for scientific research purposes and for producing crops resistant to insects or tolerant to herbicides, which are commercially marketed.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-size: 14pt;\">Genetically engineered plants and animals capable of producing less expensive drugs than current methods using biotechnology techniques (also known as biopharming or animal pharming) have been developed.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><b>In 2009<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the Food and Drug Administration approved the sale of a therapeutic protein called Antithrombin, produced from the milk of genetically engineered goats.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>Ethics in Genetic Engineering<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><b>What are the main challenges and responsibilities?<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-size: 14pt;\">Medical and biomedical professionals face ethical dilemmas that confuse them and push them to seek answers to their questions, with these ethical dilemmas intensifying due to medical and biological advancements.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-size: 14pt;\">After scientific and technological progress allowed doctors to contribute to solving various previously insoluble problems, such as infertility through in vitro fertilization, and controlling genetic genes to obtain different types of medicine (like insulin), and identifying many genetic diseases that were unknown in earlier times, ethical questions inevitably arose.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-size: 14pt;\">These developments prompted the emergence of the concept of &#8220;medical ethics&#8221; in our present age, imposing itself on the human thought arena.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-size: 14pt;\">Hundreds of volumes, thousands of articles, and lectures have made it difficult for philosophers, ethical thinkers, and medical professionals to ignore this topic or overlook the fact that &#8220;medical ethics&#8221; constitutes an important aspect of their study field in genetic engineering.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-size: 14pt;\">Doctors, for the first time in a long time, are interested in finding solutions to the ethical dilemmas they face, after a long period of practicing their professions quietly and without obstacles, strictly adhering to medical codes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-size: 14pt;\">New problems have arisen that clearly conflict with old codes and previous ethical customs; what is known so far as medical ethics rules in their traditional form cannot apply to them.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><b>Medical Ethics and Islam<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-size: 14pt;\">\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/masarat-sy.org\/en\/establishing-the-science-of-arabic-grammar-in-islam\/\">Muslims<\/a> have been interested in medicine from an early time and have translated known medical books from other nations, leading to the flourishing of medical study among Muslims, especially since Islam itself encourages this study.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Prophet Muhammad said, &#8220;<\/span><b>Allah has not sent down a disease without sending down its cure, known by those who know it and unknown by those who are ignorant<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.&#8221; Thus, it was not surprising that doctors were influenced by Hippocratic and Galenic medicine, among others, but they did not just transmit this heritage; they studied, analyzed, criticized, added to it, and integrated Islamic ethical principles with medical principles.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><b>Ibn al-Nafis<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> criticized Hippocrates&#8217; book on human nature and had unpublished works on the duties of the surgeon and his relationship with his assistants and patients.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The most important work on medical ethics in the Islamic world was by <\/span><b>Ishaq bin Ali al-Ruhawi<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, who wrote his famous book &#8220;Adab al-Tabib&#8221; (The Physician&#8217;s Etiquette), a unique work focused on practical ethics in medicine, influenced by Hippocratic and Platonic thought, in addition to relying on Islamic ethics.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-size: 14pt;\">Islam&#8217;s ethics interacted with ethical rules from other civilizations to present rules imbued with the spirit of Islam.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><b>Islam emphasizes the concept of physicians maintaining the confidentiality of patient information.<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">\n<h2 style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><b>Medical Ethics in the Current Century<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Workers in the field of biological and medical sciences have entered the current century carrying with them ancient intellectual roots and residues, along with ideas calling for <\/span><b>liberation and radical change<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-size: 14pt;\">Moreover, this century has been characterized by notable features, as science has gained importance since the early twentieth century, surpassing any other achievement throughout human history. Indeed, humanity takes pride in its philosophy, literature, and arts, acknowledging the benefits these achievements have provided in shaping the human mind and spirit. However, the status that science has acquired in this century and the impact it has managed to exert on human life (regardless of whether this impact is positive or negative) undoubtedly makes science the grand truth of our present age and thus in all ages.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><b>This, of course, includes medicine, whose new problems presented in the arena of human thought have varied as its technological development advanced.<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-size: 14pt;\">These issues have aroused public interest and reflected the ideologies, beliefs, and values of diverse societies.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-size: 14pt;\">While a stream of ideas has spread\u2014despite the intense variance between intellectual currents in the world\u2014this does not seem apparent in the field of medical ethics; this is because the ethical problems in the field of medicine are the same in any society or in general human society.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-size: 14pt;\">However, three problems have jumped to occupy the central axis of people&#8217;s thinking in the current century, which are:<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">\n<ul style=\"text-align: left;\">\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-size: 14pt;\">Abortion.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-size: 14pt;\">Human experimentation.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-size: 14pt;\">Advanced medical and biological technology.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-size: 14pt;\">And you, dear reader, what do you think? Should science remain restricted by ethics and religion, or should there be a broader space for scientific experiments?<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><b>Author: Samer Al-Aloosh, Science Teacher at Masarat Initiative<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In our current era, where technology advances at a rapid pace, genetic engineering emerges as one of the most fascinating and controversial modern technologies. This article sheds light on this amazing technique and its complex details. &nbsp; Through it, we explore how human, animal, and microbial genes are manipulated to achieve various purposes such as [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13687,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[177,125,124,129,132],"class_list":["post-14343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-development","tag-education","tag-student","tag-team","tag-technology"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/masarat-sy.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/masarat-sy.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/masarat-sy.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/masarat-sy.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/masarat-sy.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14343"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/masarat-sy.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14343\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14347,"href":"https:\/\/masarat-sy.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14343\/revisions\/14347"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/masarat-sy.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/masarat-sy.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/masarat-sy.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/masarat-sy.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}