Quote:
Originally Posted by wdfifteen
Most people need soundbite length shorthand to understand. I don't think it is appropriate for Dr. Tyson to use "genetic modification" for what you (Eric) call "the 'traditional' way of genetic modification." It confused the issue. You get into discussions of "the traditional way of genetic modification" vs the "non traditional way." Which reduces the subject to a matter of honoring tradition or not.
I believe it will be clearer to voters if the terms "genetic selection" and "genetic modification" are used consistently.
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I guess the problem is that what is going on in both cases is exactly that - genetic modification. While the traditional methods are slower and aren't dealing with exogenous genetic material, selective breeding and hybridization *are* genetic modifications. If an honest discussion about the issues is going to happen, then folks have to be honest about the terms they use. If a person's attention span is only long enough that they cannot distinguish the methods, then what weight does their opinion have in such a discussion? If folks only want products that have been modified in the traditional (non-laboratory) way, then I think it's fair to distinguish them in that way. Or, turn it around - "modified in the laboratory" to denote the products that might have exogenous genetic material.