CBSE Class 9 Answered

Though genetic engineering has some very strong advantages, it also has its own set of disadvantages:

i) Nature is an extremely complex inter-related chain consisting of many species linked in the food chain. Introducing genetically modified genes may have an irreversible effect with consequences yet unknown.

ii) Genetic engineering borderlines on many moral issues, particularly involving religion, which questions whether man has the right to manipulate the laws and course of nature.

iii) Some people believe that using GM plants will increase our dependence on pesticides.

iv)  Also it brings into question Darwin's theory of "the survival of the fittest", if this theory has worked over the last 20 centuries , why change it?

 v) Deleting certain so called inferior genes from plants or animals may give a short term advantage. But in the course of time, when conditions around us change, these very genes may prove beneficial to the organism or help it to survive in the changed conditions