DNA being created in the test tube is something we have all heard of. Cloning the parent DNA to create a daughter DNA are the terms our brains seemed to have assimilated. However, what we have never heard of is about the new way scientists have found to play with the DNA.

This time though they have taken a considerably riskier and bigger challenge of creating new life forms with the double stranded helix of deoxyribonucleic acid. The DNA is a nucleic acid which contains genetic material determining the characteristics of any living organism. This information is in the encoded form and is weaved in the double helix strand of DNA. These DNA are contained in the Chromosomes which form the cell which is the basic unit of life.

Scientists of Maryland have successfully created a completely artificial piece of chromosome containing all the information required for survival. This chromosome is now being planned to be embedded in a cell where it can manifest all the characteristics that it has been programmed to.

This idea however, doesn’t seem to have been gone down well with everyone and they are questioning the ethical aspect of this experiment. The anthropologists and philosophers are all strongly opposing this mingling of artificial and real. How would you ever come to know whether the person next to you is biologically born or synthetically created in the laboratory? Wouldn’t this be exploiting God’s right of determining birth and death? What if some companies buy the monopoly of this formulation and then produce human beings as computers fully programmed to do whatever they wish to? These questions again raise a very controversial issue.

Image Credit: BaseSciences

Via: DallasNews