Genetic Engineering Quotes

• The cloning of humans is on most of the lists of things to worry about from Science, along with behaviour control, genetic engineering, transplanted heads, computer poetry and the unrestrained growth of plastic flowers.

  Lewis Thomas

  Flower, Sunshine, Science

  Lewis Thomas (1990). “A Long Line of Cells Collected Essays”

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• Genetic engineering has never been about saving the world, it's about controlling the world.

  Vandana Shiva

  Engineering, World, Saving

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• Nuclear weapons need large facilities, but genetic engineering can be done in a small lab. You can't regulate every lab in the world. The danger is that either by accident or design, we create a virus that destroys us.

  Stephen Hawking

  Engineering, Design, Viruses

  "Colonies in space may be only hope, says Hawking". Interview with Roger Highfield, www.telegraph.co.uk. October 16, 2001.

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• The advance of genetic engineering makes it quite conceivable that we will begin to design our own evolutionary progress.

  Isaac Asimov

  Engineering, Design, Progress

  Isaac Asimov (1977). “The beginning and the end”, Pocket

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• I see nothing wrong ethically with the idea of correcting single gene defects through genetic engineering. But I am concerned about any other kind of intervention, for anything else would be an experiment, which would impose our will on future generations and take unreasonable chances with their welfare ... Thus such intervention is beyond the scope of consideration.

  Ian Wilmut

  Engineering, Ideas, Would Be

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• The benefits of medical research are real - but so are the potential horrors of genetic engineering and embryo manipulation. We devise heart transplants, but do little for the 15 million who die annually of malnutrition and related diseases. Our cleverness has grown prodigiously - but not our wisdom.

  Martin Ryle

  Real, Heart, Engineering

  Letter to Professor Carlos Chagas, February 24, 1983.

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• I suspect any worries about genetic engineering may be unnecessary. Genetic mutations have always happened naturally, anyway.

  James Lovelock

  Engineering, Worry, Mutation

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• With genetic engineering, we will be able to increase the complexity of our DNA, and improve the human race. But it will be a slow process, because one will have to wait about 18 years to see the effect of changes to the genetic code.

  Stephen Hawking

  Race, Dna, Engineering

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• With the advent of genetic engineering the time required for the evolution of new species may literally collapse.

  Dee Hock

  Engineering, May, Evolution

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• It is difficult to imagine a greater imposition than adding genes to future generations that changes the nature of future people.

  Ian Wilmut

  People, Generations, Imagine

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• I think the ethics and morals of genetic engineering are very complicated. It intrigues me.

  Roger Spottiswoode

  Thinking, Engineering, Ethics And Morals

  "Interview With The 6th Day Director Roger Spottiswoode". Interview with Scott Brake, www.ign.com. November 17, 2000.

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• My worry is that other advances in science may result in other means of
  mass destruction, maybe more readily available even than nuclear weapons.
  Genetic engineering is quite a possible area, because of these dreadful
  developments that are taking place there.

  Joseph Rotblat

  Mean, Mass Destruction, Engineering

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• There is a real danger that computers will develop intelligence and take over.

  Stephen Hawking

  Real, Computer, Danger

  Interview with Roger Highfield, www.telegraph.co.uk. October 18, 2001.

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• I am simply pointing out that at the rate at which we are going the whole genetic engineering technology will end up in the hands of the political system to be used for the complete control and subjugation of man.

  U.G. Krishnamurti

  Technology, Men, Hands

  "Mind is a Myth". Book by U. G. Krishnamurti. Ch. 4: There Is Nothing To Understand, 1987.

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• Every orchid or rose or lizard or snake is the work of a dedicated and skilled breeder. There are thousands of people, amateurs and professionals, who devote their lives to this business. Now imagine what will happen when the tools of genetic engineering become accessible to these people.

  Freeman Dyson

  Engineering, Orchids, Snakes

  Freeman Dyson (2015). “Dreams of Earth and Sky”, p.2, New York Review of Books

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• Genetic engineering is a result of science advancement, so I don't think that in itself is bad.

  Hideo Kojima

  Thinking, Engineering, Advancement

  Source: www.ign.com

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• Renegade scientists and totalitarian loonies are not the folks most likely to abuse genetic engineering. You and I are-not because we are bad but because we want to do good. In a world dominated by competition, parents understandably want to give their kids every advantage. ... The most likely way for eugenics to enter into our lives is through the front door as nervous parents ... will fall over one another to be first to give Junior a better set of genes.

  Arthur Caplan

  Fall, Kids, Eugenics

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• It should soon be possible dramatically to increase the intelligence and life span of a few individuals. They and their offspring could become a master race. Evolution pays no regard to social justice. It was not fair on the Neanderthals they were replaced by modern humans.

  Stephen Hawking

  Race, Engineering, Justice

  "Gods of science: Stephen Hawking and Brian Cox discuss mind over matter". The Guardian Interview, www.theguardian.com. September 10, 2010.

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• There is a real danger that computers will develop intelligence and take over. We urgently need to develop direct connections to the brain so that computers can add to human intelligence rather than be in opposition.

  Stephen Hawking

  Real, Brain, Connections

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• The pressures for human cloning are powerful; but, although it seems likely that somebody, at some time, will attempt it, we need not assume that it will ever become a common or significant feature of human life.

  Ian Wilmut

  Powerful, Needs, Cloning

  Ian Wilmut, Keith Campbell, Colin Tudge (2001). “The Second Creation: Dolly and the Age of Biological Control”, p.298, Harvard University Press

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• One of the really remarkably beneficial aspects of genetic engineering is that much of the previous methodology for controlling pests and so forth is through chemicals that affect a very broad spectrum of insects, for example, or fungicides that control fungi.

  Nina Fedoroff

  Engineering, Example, Pests

  "Debating The Potential Danger Of Transgenic Weeds". "Science Friday" with Ira Flatow, www.npr.org. February 25, 2011.

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• It's true that to speak of an ethic of giftedness, which is very much the ethic that I deploy in raising questions about designer children and genetic engineering - an appreciation of the giftedness of the child or the giftedness of life does have religious resonance, because a great many religious traditions emphasize the sense in which the good things in life are not all our own doing; they are gifts from God.

  Michael Sandel

  Religious, Appreciation, Children

  Source: www.pbs.org

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• India has the opportunity to be a leader in genetic engineering, It has institutions that no other country has.

  Nina Fedoroff

  Country, Opportunity, Engineering

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• Some says that genetic engineering is within the scope of the God! Well, it was so, that area would have been encircled with the impassable high walls! Mankind cannot lose its time with this kind of religious craps! Genetic engineering is our garden!

  Mehmet Murat Ildan

  Religious, Wall, Garden

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• We are intelligent atoms. We are intelligent organic structures. We can change who we are. We can heal ourselves. With genetic engineering, we are considering changing the physiological structure of the body.

  Frederick Lenz

  Buddhism, Science, Intelligent

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