Genetic Engineering yay or nay?

Genetic engineering has been something on my mind a lot lately. It seems that people have very different perceptions of what genetic engineering really is. This photo is one of the common misconceptions of what people think genetic engineering is trying to accomplish.


This photo is a picture of "genetic engineering" that is attempting to turn animals into humans to create a master race without malice. This is not something that is really happening in studies today. This is just one of many different things people come up with when finding reasons to not support genetic engineering. My only request of you as my reader is to either take informed action against people posting things like this or ignore them completely. There is no validity to these claims.

Why don't we get all of the facts in a row now.
Lets start at the beginning, what IS genetic engineering?
Genetic engineering is defined on Wikipedia as " The direct manipulation of an organisms genome using biotechnology."

What does this mean to the average american? It means that scientists are working to take your genes from inside your cells and changing them. This could be used to fix many different problems that we as humans have.

For example, genetic engineering could eradicate downs syndrome from the human population, or fix mutations that cause breast cancer. Also, genetic engineering in bacteria has lead to the production of bacteria with the ability to create human insulin!

Though this engineering can obviously have positive affects on humans, there are valid reasons to fear this power in the wrong persons hands. This power in the wrong persons hands could lead to cloning or the unnecessary destruction of embryos. 
Sources! Source 2! Source 3