CENTER FOR GENETICS AND SOCIETY
BULLETIN #5 -- April 30, 2002
CONTENTS
I. Increasingly Dangerous Polarization on Human Cloning
II. Mark Your Calendars: "Beyond Cloning," Sept. 20-22, New York City
III. New Resources on Cloning and Human Genetic Manipulation
IV. New Proposals to "Rethink our Opposition to Eugenics"
V. CGS Job Opening - Communications Director
I. INCREASINGLY DANGEROUS POLARIZATION ON HUMAN CLONING
As the U.S. Senate nears a vote on human cloning, an increasingly polarized debate about cloning embryos for research is threatening to block legislative action that would ban the production of full-term human clones. At the same time, the terms and tenor of the controversy are obscuring public understanding of the social implications of cloning technology, including its potential for opening the door to a new eugenics.
The debate about embryo cloning has largely pitted "the status of human embryos" against "medical progress." Two well-organized and well-funded constituencies dominate this debate: conservative anti-abortion forces that oppose any legislation that allows embryo cloning, and biomedical/biotech interests that oppose any legislation that bans embryo cloning.
Congressional consideration of cloning legislation could easily end in a stalemate. Proposals by pro-choice progressives and liberals for alternative policies that would impose strong controls on embryo cloning but not ban it, or a moratorium until such controls are devised and the need for embryo cloning confirmed, have begun to receive attention. But in the absence of politically influential constituencies advocating such alternatives, most legislators can be expected to support one or the other of the polarized positions now on the table.
These developments are dangerous in a way that goes well beyond the current Congressional struggle. If forced to choose between the positions advocated by the two active camps, many liberals, progressives and moderates who would otherwise support governmental regulation and control would throw in their lot with the biotechnology industry before they align themselves with a position favored by the anti-abortion religious right.
It would be tragic if the newly emerging politics of human genetic modification were abandoned to conservatives in this manner. The great majority of liberals and progressives would oppose a resurgent eugenics that introduces new forms of discrimination and injustice. And most liberals and progressives understand the need for societal controls over powerful technologies.
The next few years will be a critical period for preventing new eugenic and "post-human" technologies and philosophies from taking root. We will need to craft responsible policies, alert key constituencies, build cultural momentum, and create a progressive politics committed to a future of genetic justice.
II. MARK YOUR CALENDARS! Beyond Cloning: Protecting Humanity from the New Eugenic Technologies. Sept. 20 - 22, 2002, New York City.
This important conference precedes the United Nations' week-long negotiations on a treaty to ban reproductive human cloning.
III. NEW RESOURCES ON CLONING AND HUMAN GENETIC MANIPULATION
Responsible policies on cloning are described in:
Op-Ed by Richard Hayes in the San Francisco Chronicle, Apr.
17:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2002/04/17/ED69372.DTL
Analysis by George Annas in the Boston Globe, Apr. 21: http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/111/focus/Cell_division+.shtml
Editorial in the Dallas Morning News, Apr. 22:
http://www.genetics-and-society.org/resources/items/20020422_dallas_editorial.html
Subscribe to Human Genetics Alert. This London-based email news service provides daily and weekly digests of important developments concerning the new human genetic technologies. For information and to subscribe: http://www.hgalert.org
IV. NEW PROPOSALS TO "RETHINK OUR OPPOSITION TO EUGENICS"
Richard Lynn, emeritus professor of psychology at the University of Ulster, advocates "rethinking our opposition to eugenics" in a recent BBC interview and in his Eugenics: A Reassessment (Praeger Press, 2001). Lynn told the BBC:
"The new medical technology of eugenics is going to take off, because it satisfies the needs of individuals, both for themselves and as parents. Parents would like to have children who are free of genetic diseases, and potentially in the future they will want to have children who are intelligent. This is serving people's needs and wishes. As the technology comes on line to allow them to do this, people will take it up."
Lynn is associate editor of the eugenicist publication Mankind Quarterly. He has said, "What is called for here is not genocide, the killing off of the population of incompetent cultures. But we do need to think realistically in terms of the 'phasing out' of such peoples....Evolutionary progress means the extinction of the less competent" (cited in Newsday, 11/9/94). For the complete story see http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/health/newsid_1952000/1952449.stm.
Bioethicist James Hughes argues that liberals and progressives should embrace eugenic and "transhumanist" technologies and politics. In his paper "Democratic Transhumanism," he presents an eleven-point program that includes the following: "(1) Build the transhumanist movement, (2) Guarantee morphological freedom and bodily autonomy... (5) Expand federal funding for research into transhuman technologies, (6) Create national health plans which include transhuman tech." For Hughes' complete paper see: http://www.changesurfer.com/Acad/DemocraticTranshumanism.htm.
Gregory Stock extols the virtues of inheritable genetic modifications in Redesigning Humans: Our Inevitable Genetic Future (Houghton Mifflin 2002). For a debate between Stock and Francis Fukuyama, who has just published Our Posthuman Future: Consequences of the Biotechnology Revolution (Farrar Straus & Giroux), see http://reason.com/debate/eh-debate1.shtml
V. CGS JOB OPENING - COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR
The Center for Genetics and Society is looking for a top-flight Communications Director to work out of our Oakland, CA headquarters. The Communications Director will help develop overall strategy to increase awareness of the social and political implications of the new human genetic technologies, and be responsible for ongoing communications, press and media activities. For details and to apply see http://www.genetics-and-society.org/jobs.html
More Information
Analysis:
Examine the social, cultural, and economic landscape
Perspectives:
Explore various communities' concerns regarding human genetic
technologies
Policies:
Read about existing and potential regulations
Technologies:
Learn the basic science and consider arguments for and against