# halfway down the slippery slope: genetic engineering pt. I

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/halfway-down-the-slippery-slope-genetic-engineering-pt-i/23681>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [June 27, 2000, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/halfway-down-the-slippery-slope-genetic-engineering-pt-i/23681 "2000-06-27T03:02:32Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![threemae](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5f9b8f/32.png) [@threemae](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/threemae)\
**Post date:** [June 28, 2000, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/halfway-down-the-slippery-slope-genetic-engineering-pt-i/23681/21 "2000-06-28T22:21:27Z")

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Hold on a second there on that Bt corn study. That study has been pretty much dismissed as bogus science. The most important mistake that the experimenters made was providing only Bt corn pollen covored food for the experimental group. The control group was NOT provided with pollen covoered food from regular corn. As it turns out, the catipillars naturally avoid the pollen covored plants because the pollen is naturally harmful to them.

Just because some big-eared, somewhat vapid member of the British royalty references a study does not mean that you should too.

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**Author:** ![SoMoMom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/41988e/32.png) [@SoMoMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SoMoMom)\
**Post date:** [June 29, 2000, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/halfway-down-the-slippery-slope-genetic-engineering-pt-i/23681/22 "2000-06-29T22:11:51Z")

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threemae, apparently I didn’t make myself clear. These are examples that were not thought of before the GM seeds were for sale. I was trying to give examples of studies done that were not thought of by the manufacturer. I was trying to point out that no matter how many scenarios that jb tried to think of, something surprising would come from his glowing spider or his laughing rattlesnake.

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**Author:** ![MandaJo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@MandaJo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MandaJo)\
**Post date:** [June 30, 2000, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/halfway-down-the-slippery-slope-genetic-engineering-pt-i/23681/23 "2000-06-30T03:15:07Z")

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edwino said:

> [@](#):
>
> a) Genetic engineers are nowhere near as graceful as nature. 90% of the time when we manipulate the genome, we  
> cause serious damage and reduce the fitness of the organism.

I would be shocked to find out that 10% of Nature’s “attempts” actually lead to increase in fitness: I have always understood that nature’s secrret lies not in her gracefulness, but rather her long-term funding and vast labratory.

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