Part 4: GMO Medicine and Cloning

Dr Abe V Rotor

GMO and Medicine

 .With the Human Genome - the genetic map of the 46 chromosomes and their gene components - about to be completed, a new field of medicine – gene therapy – is being  unveiled.

Here a “defective” gene that is the cause of a disease, say diabetes or cancer, can be repaired, even before these diseases are expressed by the patient. It is also true that addiction such as alcoholism can also be cured in this manner. In the future diagnosis will be done by reading the genome map of the person. Insurance companies, employers, banks, schools, etc. will rely greatly on the genome map.

But before gene therapy will be available in hospitals, there will be drug-carrying GMOs. Eating broccoli for example, will deliver drugs that stave off infectious diseases or treat various chronic ailments, not because broccoli is rich in vitamins and minerals, but because it carries a gene that is specific in curing a particular disease.

DNA Helix model of Crick and Watson 

GM potatoes and tomatoes with therapeutic DNA material may someday be used for immunization. Instead of getting the shot one will simply eat these GM food. For Third World countries, plant-based vaccines appear practical. The villagers simply grow these plants and eat them a few to several times and year, thus activating the antibodies which protect body against particular diseases in the process.

The process may be useful for conditions such as Type I diabetes. For diabetics, eating insulin-bearing tubers could eventually train the body’s defenses to stop reacting to insulin as if it were a foreign material.

GMO and Cloning

Cloning is at the extreme end of biotechnology – the creation of a whole organism that carries the exact replica of its parent, the organism from which the clone was derived. Candidate for cloning are lined up in the list of endangered species. The first successful clone under Noah project (named after Noah in the Old Testament is the gaur, a relative of the cow found in India, Bangladesh and Southeast Asia. The first cloned endangered animal is about to be born. Among the important candidates are the giant Panda, White Rhinoceros and the Bactrian Deer.

It is not far that the next candidate is man himself. Scientists believe that if this happens it will be the greatest mistake of science, because the human species is pushed nearly to extinction, which is worse than his banishment from Eden. ~

Living with Nature in Our Times, UST-AVR