PAPER MERGING (KIMWOODS ONLY)

Food security is a very important aspect of the economy of any country. In the desire and urge for countries to acquire food, securities have pushed countries into making use of various technologies in the agricultural sector to increase production. Among the technologies that have been adopted is the use of DNA technology which leads to the production of genetically modified foods. For the last about a quarter of a century, the issue of the DNA technology to produce the GM foods has raised a lot of controversies among individuals with some in support of the technology and many other against the use. The controversies raised have mainly been as a result of the ethical issues and concern that surround this topic. The individuals that support the use of technologies cite the lowered cost of food production, efficiency as well as more production. For those that are against the technology, they raise various ethical concerns such as health concerns, contaminations as well as environmental risks as is going to be discussed in this paper.

Analysis considers the impact of the technology on humanity.

The ethics that concern the issue of GMOs are mainly defined on the basis of the virtue vs. the vice (Piguet & Poindron, 2012). The set of ethical concerns that we are going first to focus on is mainly related to the consequences that born from the use of the GM foods. The consequences caused by the GM foods face a very major basis of the argument on whether the GM foods are right or wrong and whether or not they should be advocated. The questions to be answered in this are whether or not the GM foods have negative or positive effects.

Despite the fact that most scientist still holds that the GM foods are safe for consumption, and they do not pose any risk to the health of the consumers, there are still numerous health concerns that result in the consumption of GM foods, and this acts as a major ethical concern. The first such concern is allergies. The GM food is said to be related to the triggering of allergies in individuals. This is because the gene that is used to modify the plants could be extracted from an organism that is allergenic. When placed into a plant which initially does not cause its allergies, an allergen is added, and thus, the plant now poses the danger of allergies to consumers. When consumed by individuals they may, as a result, suffer allergic reactions. For individuals whose genes are not compatible with the genes used for modification, new allergies may also arise.

The second ethical concern that is also based on the consequences of the GM food is the diseases. GM foods also pose the risk of disease to their consumers. The modifications of the plants are sometimes done with bacteria and virus DNAs; there is the risk of new disease that is posed to the individuals who consume it. Some of other genes used contain antibiotic-resistant marker genes which could cause diseases and problems to people who consume. The high resistant antibodies gained from these foods a very disastrous problem could arise as the response system to antibiotics for individuals could go down exposing them to a lot of diseases.

The final ethical concern that related to the consequences of the GM foods is the damage that it causes to the environment. There are various speculations that GM foods come with a lot of and damage to the environment. The environmental effects are related to the environmental effects of technology and also the ability for individuals to contain them. For example, some of them are resistant to various herbicides making it hard to eliminate them when need be (Nelson, 2001).

Analysis clearly utilizes two distinct ethical approaches

Reviewing this issue form the deontological theory point of view which looks at the consequences which are described above, the consequences are obviously more negative than positive and this makes the issue an ethical. Using the virtue theory of ethics the consequences show that the issue does not promote such important virtues like care and thus the issue us not ethical.

Conclusion

In the face of technology all sectors of the economy including the agricultural sector is affected. The only way through which the ethical concerns can be controlled is by making sure that there are a lot of government regulations of the GM food productions. Comment by Maxon3: need to beef up your conclusion. review your main points and your thesis for this section.

Visual illustration Comment by Maxon3: incorporate into your paper.

References

Nelson, G. (2001). Genetically modified organisms in agriculture: economics and politics. San Diego, Calif: Academic Press.

Piguet, P. & Poindron, P. (2012). Genetically modified organisms and genetic engineering in research and therapy. Basel New York: Karger.

Week 5: Ethical Considerations draft. Roughly 2 pages long. (90 possible points)

Components needed for this section:

1. A detailed evaluation of the ethical considerations associated with the technology in relation to its impact on humanity

1. An illustration of at least two specific ethical theories that differentiates their varying approaches in consideration of the questions raised by the selected technology

1. At least one statistical graph/visual aid that supports or provides value to the section

1. In-text APA formatted citations with a reference page

The assessment should be well-written and incorporate proper grammar and no spelling errors.  It should incorporate an introduction, body, and a conclusion paragraph.