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Question
Instructions
Choose one of the following topics and write a 400-500 word essay. You must cite at least 2 primary sources. Follow the APA format. for articles and or websites (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.. You must use direct (primary) sources of information (i.e., not Wikipedia or news articles). The essay must have the following sections: accurate title, 3-sentence abstract, introductory paragraph, 2-3 body paragraphs, conclusion, references. The entire essay should be less than 525 words; that includes everything. You will get a point deducted for going over the word limit, and 1 point each for missing any of the required sections listed above.
For all topics, you must write at least 1 paragraph that is 100% your own personal insight.
- Genetic engineering and medicine
- Choose one disease that has been cured by genetic engineering.
- Briefly describe the disease; evaluate the cure.
- Therapeutic cloning
- Describe a disease that is caused by a malfunctioning gene and can be cured by gene therapy.
- Genetic engineering and agriculture
- Find an engineered agricultural crop or livestock.
- Discuss the pro’s and con’s and any ethical concerns.
- Reproductive cloning and conservation of endangered species
- Find examples and discuss concerns.
- Stem cell therapy
- Find a disease that has been cured by this therapy.
- What are some of the issues around stem cell therapy?
Please remember to use your own words and check for spelling and grammatical errors. The Turnitin results will always show some level of matching, but there should never be complete sentences and sections that are not from your own writing. Practice rephrasing and synthesizing ideas rather than transferring directly someone else's words.
| Subject | Essay Writing | Pages | 4 | Style | APA |
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Answer
Abstract
There is need to tightly control and monitor cultivation of genetically modified maize. Advantages include improved yield, nutritional value, and resistance to diseases and/or pests. Disadvantages include safety concerns, risk of wiping-out or cross pollinating wild-type maize variants, monopolistic control of the crop, and promoting increased use of herbicides with greater environmental impact.
Genetically Engineered Maize
Genetic engineering of maize crop may have been pushed by certain factors. Resistance to pests is one of the key factors that drive this move. Another factor was the need to impart resistance to common diseases affecting the crop. On the other hand, genetic engineering of the maize crop may have been pushed by factors such as the need to boost productivity of the crop, nutritional value of maize grains, resistance to climatic conditions such as heavy rains during harvesting time and/or ability of the crop to thrive in harsh climatic conditions such as aridity. This study discusses the pros and cons of genetic engineering of the maize crop.
There are several pros associated with genetic engineering of the maize crop. The first advantage is that a genetically engineered maize crop is resistant to common pests affecting the crop, hence reducing demand and the need to use chemicals to control pests. The second advantage is that a genetically engineered maize crop is better in terms of its nutritional value, which imparts a positive impact on populations that treat maize as a stable food crop. The third advantage is that a genetically engineered maize crop is better in terms of yield compared with wild-type variants.
Contrarily, genetically modified maize crop is associated with a number of cons or disadvantages. First of all, there are ethical concerns in the population as to whether genetically modified maize can have negative health impacts on the long-run such as cancer. Secondly, there are concerns relating to the potential impact of genetically modified maize in cross-pollinate or worse still, wiping out the wild-type maize variants. Thirdly, development of herbicide-resistant maize will contribute to increased use of herbicides; thus, greater environmental impact (Benevenuto et al., 2017). Lastly but not the least, there are concerns that increased cultivation of patented genetically modified maize variants may put the whole world in captivity since it will reach a time in which all maize seedlings in the global market is produced and sold by few or one company. Monopoly control of food is a great risk to humanity. Currently, there is lack of availability of genetically modified maize seedlings and may be the case in the future once non-genetically modified variants have been wiped out (Gouse et al., 2016).
In conclusion, genetically modified maize has certain pros and cons. Pros includes increased yield and nutritional value, improved level of resistance to environmental constraints, diseases and/or pests. On the other hand, cons include ethical concerns pertaining to safety of the crop when used as human food, risk of wiping-out or cross pollinating wild-type maize variants, increased environmental impact due to increased use of herbicides, and monopoly control of the maize seedlings by one or a few companies. Cultivation of genetically modified maize must be tightly regulated.
References
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Benevenuto, R.F., Agapito-Tenfen, S.Z., Vilperte, V., Wikmark, O-G., van Rensburg, P.J., & Nodari, R.O. (2017) Molecular responses of genetically modified maize to abiotic stresses as determined through proteomic and metabolomic analyses. PLoS ONE, 12(2): e0173069. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0173069 Gouse, M., Sengupta, D., Zambrano, P., & Zepeda, J.F. (2016). Genetically modified maize: Les drudgery for her, maize for him? Evidence from smallholder maize farmers in South Africa. World Development, 83(2016), 27-38.
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