Table of Contents
Why is selective breeding in humans unethical?
Genetic engineering and selective breeding appear to violate animal rights, because they involve manipulating animals for human ends as if the animals were nothing more than human property, rather than treating the animals as being of value in themselves.
What are pros and cons for selective breeding?
Selective breeding is an extremely efficient way to good genetics in certain crops and livestock. However, if you are concerned about the cons of it, such as a genetic depression or discomfort to animals, the alternatives can be much worse, such as carrying out genetic modification.
Why selective breeding is useful for farmers?
By selectively breeding animals (breeding those with desirable traits), farmers increased the size and productivity of their livestock. Plants could also be selectively bred for certain qualities.
How does selective breeding affect humans?
Humans have bred food crops from wild plants and domesticated animals for thousands of years. Selective breeding is when humans breed plants and animals for particular genetic characteristics so that they are different to their actual wild ancestors and are now beneficial to humans.
What are the negative effects of selective breeding?
Risks: Selective breeding is also a risk of changing the evolution of the species and because humans are breeding different species for a particular trait this can lead for a risk of losing some of the other genes from the gene pool altogether which is very hard to bring back.
What are some facts about selective breeding?
It is free. Selective breeding is a free process that can be performed on plants and animals, especially for the purpose of business. It requires no company patent. Anyone who is working in the agricultural business can start this method whenever he wants. It provides higher yields. It leads to higher profits. It does not pose any safety issues.
What are some examples of selective breeding?
One of the oldest and most widely documented examples of selective breeding for food is the selection of tall growing (for easier harvesting), disease resistant wheat, which yields large amounts of grain.
How does selective breeding work in plants?
How Selective Breeding Works. Selective breeding means choosing the plants or animals that have the most pronounced desirable characteristics and breeding them. When the process is repeated with the descendants of the selected parents and again over several generations, the desirable characteristics develop more and more.