"Science does not know its debt to imagination."

Question:

Artificial selection has resulted in plants that are more disease-resistant, cows that produce more milk, and racehorses that run faster. One must wonder what will come next. In the blog entry answer the following question - under what circumstances should humans be artificially selecting plants or animals, if any?

Artificial Selection or the intentional choosing of individuals of a species for the purpose of reproduction of certain traits with the result that the desired characteristics will appear in subsequent generations is a current practice among various fields but probably more prevalent in the food industry.

Artificial Selection is used in creating perfectly bred dogs, incredibly large chicken, muscular cows, and determines the future of the species that are affected.

Intentional Artificial Selection is characterized by conscious design or purpose, but artificial selection can also occur accidentally.

From among who do this deliberately, a choice is made from a number of alternatives. But who are the people who practice artificial selection on purpose? Scientists? Ordinary people? Hobos off the street?

When you think about it, we all do. We all make that choice. The difference lies in the level of impact to the world around us, and that is dependent on the circumstances and species being dealt with.

Individuals of a species: The poor little (or big) subjects that are being manipulated! Why them!? What do humans get out of them?

Animals were made for humans to care for and use, as stated in the Bible. We are allowed to use then as we need to but we are also responsible for their lives and wellbeing. Over time, humans have taken advantage of animals like chickens, pigs, and cows, and other animals used for food, and pets like cats and dogs. Humans also stand by as species become extinct while they continue to modify and artificially select better versions of the animals that are still alive.

A certain trait or characteristic of a species is so unique or become so valuable that they simply MUST be replicated unto the future generations. To modify and alter the species population so that they all posses the desired trait and will add even more value to the species.

Example: Boneless? Skinless? Featherless?

Chickens without feathers are bred to be more energy efficient to grow and farm so you can grow even more chickens than before! This may benefit humans exponentially but is so unnatural to the chickens. It also leaves them more vulnerable to disease and sickness, plus the overt fact that it would get cold easily.

Example: This is SPARTA!

An example of artificial selection in humans would be in, you guessed it! SPARTANS! YEAH!

As you may have seen in the movie 300, (based on the true history of the Spartans in Greece,) all Spartan men are bred to be powerful warriors. This means that they need to be healthy with no trace of any deformities. If any abnormality is found in their physical appearance, they are thrown into the place of rejection: a valley where mounds of rejected baby corpses rot. The Spartans took the selection process seriously and artificially selected the best males and females to breed and maintain their "physical superiority" reputation.

Artificial Selection can occur whether we realize it or not. Simply choosing a faster, stronger, or better individual over another in the same species is already artificial selection because it affects that individual and its offspring (or lack thereof). This would affect the future generations and future or the whole species. Whether we realize it or not, the choices we make as humans make all the difference in the lives of other species on this planet.

Example: Samurai Crabs!!

Heikegani are a species of crabs in Japan whose shells are patterned to resemble a human face, or more specifically, a Japanese Samurai face. They are believed to be reincarnations from spirits of fallen Heike warriors from the Battle of Dan-no-ura. Because of this, when gathering crab, farmers believe in respecting crabs with faces on their shells and throw them back while eating the non-patterned shelled crabs.

This is artificial selection. Since the farmers allow the samurai patterned crabs to live on, they also allow them to reproduce more while they decrease the number of non-patterned crabs. Soon enough, there will be a large majority of sacred samurai faced crabs with very normal ones little left to eat.

There is really no way of convincing the Japanese to disregard their tradition and eat face patterned crabs. But over time, because of their propensity to preserve the special crabs, they will soon be overwhelmed by the vast majority of its population - of the kind they can't eat.

So we know that everyone does participate in artificial selection one way or another but the question that begs to be asked is: Who SHOULD?

I think the strongest motivation to deliberately practice artificial selection is economics. Plant and animal breeders select qualities in different species that are useful to humans and through breeding programs, they are ensuring that greater yielding crops and animals are produced. In the food industry, it simply is a more efficient way of ensuring the continuous supply of these desired (live) products. Artificial selection minimizes wastage (of unwanted or unusable parts) and therefore contributes to cost-effectiveness of their operations.

What are the intentions?

Intentions are what we should base our decision on when deciding whether humans should be allowed to artificially select plants or animals or not.

If you're superstitious and just following tradition like the Japanese then your intentions may be innocent and you're just doing what you've been brought up to do and that is, respect the fallen warriors of your country. I can understand that and this act of allowing only the samurai faced crabs to survive is not necessarily creating a new species of crab. There is nothing genetically varying in these crabs, they don't have better immune systems or better/worse meat (that we know of, but then again, no one ever eats them so how would we know?). This artificial selection is simply making the predominant specie more unison in appearance. Japanese farmers will continue to harvest them until the day comes when they are ALL samurai face patterned and basically untouchable. I think eventually they would overpopulate the waters, and then the Japanese will have some morally defining decisions to make.

So under what circumstances should people be allowed to artificially select animals or plants? I think that most situations are acceptable as long as it doesn't cause the extinction of an entire species or something of the like. In the end, I think that everyone will be involved some sort of artificial selection and I think it would take too much effort to try to avoid it just because we don't think we should be participating in it. In the same way we can't help but choose our future mates in life we also cannot help but choose our livestock, plants, food and pets. Artificial selection is a part of the web of life; it's inevitable. No one can escape it and everyone should embrace the concept. But most importantly, everyone must be thoughtful and considerate when making decisions that affect other species.