Ok I have been thinking genetics is that part of biology wich has the ability to change the genes of an organism as such it changes their abilities as well if so why cant we use this technique to change the problems that we face for example: The cells of plants contain chlorophylle as such they can create their own food thanks to sunlight+water+CO2 what if we take the gene responsible for this and transfer it to a human being like this he will not have any need to eat(but he still can if he wants for more energy like meat-eater plants) however a downside would be green skin but I think is worth another one would be the lizards wich have the ability to regenerate limbs and other body parts that were lost this can help those who suffer from absence of body parts. Wouldn't this be amazing like a human with different abilities to adapt and survive these that I mentioned are simply core of our problems these days there can still be more to it. SO why isn't this technique used for a solution to our problems?
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1$\begingroup$ Making green humans wouldn't work, as a human doesn't have nearly enough surface area to collect the energy they need to survive - even if they lay on a sunny nude beach all day :-) It takes roughly an acre (about 4000 m^2) to support a human. $\endgroup$– jamesqfCommented Jan 30, 2017 at 0:22
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$\begingroup$ It would be much easier to make a glow-in-the-dark human with some GFP as it has been done with cats already. $\endgroup$– Remi.bCommented Jan 30, 2017 at 4:42
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1$\begingroup$ Related biology.stackexchange.com/q/17676/3340 $\endgroup$– WYSIWYGCommented Jan 30, 2017 at 5:05
1 Answer
Here are three elements you want to consider
we are not able to make genetic manipulation of all the cells in a grown-up individual. There exist a whole bunch of treatment making use of genetic engineering in adult humans but they are typically quite costly.
The phenotypic traits that you mention are extremely complex. There is no simple gene that will allow a lizard to regenerate a lost limb. You will have to learn more about cell specialization in order to understand why lizards have a power of regeneration that we don't. Similarly, you can't just transfer a few genes and expect a human to be able to photosynthetize. Photosynthesis is a very complex process which require the ability to perform a whole bunch of reaction, which require organelles we don't have for the reactions to take place, which requires the ability to gather and concentrate lots of $CO_2$, etc... It is really really not that easy. You should learn more about the specific traits you are mentioning to get a notion for why it is not that easy.
Genetic manipulation on human is vastly illegal for ethical reasons. But these ethical reasons are to be discussed on philosophy.SE.
