frought

Selective breeding is obviously reproduction in the normal manner (on a molecular scale, at least), between to organisms selected on the basis of physical traits and/or behaviour. There's finer scale messing about with "life's little instruction set" (ie the genes within genome).

This is in contrast with genetic engineering, where the genome is directly modified by humans. There are not the biological checks and balances present in the creation of a genome modified in a lab, as there are in nature. Genes often operate not singly, but in a network of other genes. What is more, these networks aren't really understood - there is a great deal of work being done on gene networks in simple organisms, but large scale gene networks in complex organisms like people are not properly understood. The consequences of manipulating these gene networks is difficult to predict without much greater research.

The possibilities are pretty grim - try googling 'thalidomide', and then imagine something much worse. This is a completely different ballgame to selecting Peter and Peta to shag, just because they happen to be bloody good-lookin'.

That said, of course, I'm all for research into genetic engineering, and stem cells (which make the process much simpler). Properly done, it has the ability to create tremendous rewards. At least, it has the ability to reap tremendous rewards for rich people... I think the majority of the worlds people are still dealing with quite basic healthcare issues (which I actually think would be a better way to spend our resources).


I take it you're also more generally refering to antibiotic resistant bacteria, and 'People' are still very worried.

__________________
perl -e 'use Inline C=>q{void frought(){printf("I must be boondoggling again\n");}};frought'