Would Pain-Free Animals Make a More Humane Hamburger?

Can we have a Pain-Free Big Mac?

Researches say that removing some genes could stop animals from feeling pain. Many people consider this humane because the animal doesn't suffer while it is being killed, but other people find this inhumane because you are removing the "skill of feeling pain" from the animal.
In recent years, scientists have made progress manipulating molecular and genetic bases for pain. A recent study found that mice that lack the Nav1.7 gene are less sensitive than normal mice to heat and pressure. Possibly, farm animals that lack such a gene would also suffer less "under factory farm conditions". But there are other alternatives to pain-free animals and one of them is to produce meat in vitro. This would be possible by growing animal muscles cells.

After reading this I ask myself a question; how would genetically modified meat affect the way I eat and I enjoy the meat? Would I have cancer? I think that manipulating the feelings of the animals is not the solution to stop this because by doing it we would control the animals and not let them live a normal life. I as a Human would not like anyone to control my hole life; I would find it inhuman. This is why I think that probably the best way to stop the animals from suffering is to stop killing them.

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Innocence Project (DNA fingerprinting)

Imagine that a 14 year old boy is interrogated by the police to the point that he confesses that he has murdered his sister, a crime he did not commit. Clearly after this confession, the boy will spend the rest of his life in the jail, but, what could the boy do toprove that he is not the murderer? The answer is easy; DNA fingerprinting.
Thanks to this method many and many people who were in jail because of a crime that they didn't commit have been liberated; this is the job of http://www.innocenceproject.org/ who have already exonerated 281 people. (Data updated on 12/09/2011).
An example of their amazing job is Michael Anthony Green who stayed 27 years in a jail for a crime that he didn't even commited. This Texan was convicted in 1983 for a rape.

According to court records, a woman talking on a pay phone with her husband was abducted at gunpoint by two men at a Greenspoint-area gas station after midnight on April 18, 1983. They forced her into a car with two other men. Her abductors drove the victim to a secluded area, where three of them sexually assaulted her. The fourth man did not participate.

Green was convicted because he was in the area where the four black men commited their rape and he was black. Michael spent 27 years in prison.

After reading this story I became really interested in this topic and I discovered that to identify a DNA is easier than what it appears to be. After reading this story I have also learnt that the persistance is very important, this is why probably Mr.Green is free now. My perspective about the justice system has not changed at all, specially because I know that now they try to check the DNA in every case and that only a few people can resulr convicted when they have not done anything bad. To conclude I would like to say that thanks to the scientific improvements now we can know who has really commited a crime.

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Lucy the Chimpanzee

This is the story of a chimpanzee who was released with other three captive chimps in Africa.

The transition for Lucy was very hard because she had been living with Humans a lot of years. This is why she was unable to find food. But, as a good chimpanzee she left with other chimpanzees after 1 year and a half.

What we can learn from the story of Lucy is that chimpanzees are very Human like but probably the case of this chimpanzee was special because she grew up between humans.

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My first post!!

I am Aitor, an exchange student from the Basque Country in the north of Spain.

I have created this blog to share my knowledge of biology with everybody who would like to know more about this science; but especially, I would like to show my family in Spain how much I am learning in this school year.

I am not sure yet what I will be blogging about but I think a lot of it will be about the things that I do in class.

Don't forget to check my DP: http://aitorbarrantesdigitalportfolio.weebly.com