GENETIC CROSSROADS #15
February 21, 2001
Supporting responsible uses of human genetic
technologies
Opposing the new techno-eugenics
(formerly the Techno-Eugenics Email Newsletter)
CONTENTS
II.
UPCOMING EVENTS
1.
"Globalization and Technology" Conference, NYC, February
24-25
2.
"Race, Biotech and Eugenics in the New Global Millennium,"
NYC,
February 25
3.
UC Berkeley Events Address Human Genetic Manipulation,
March 12
& 14
III.
COMMENTS
1.
American-Italian Team Says It Will Begin Cloning Effort
2.
Biotech Industry Position on Human Cloning
3.
David King on the Genome Announcement
IV. POINTERS: SAMPLING OF ARTICLES ON HUMAN CLONING AND TECHNO-EUGENICS
In just the six weeks since the last issue of Genetic Crossroads,
the
prospect of human genetic manipulation has been catapulted to
a far
higher public profile than ever before: The first
transgenic primate.
Featured stories by major US magazines and
television news shows about
covert human cloning efforts. The
announcement of an immminent cloning
attempt by a pair of IVF
clinic operators. New findings based on the
human genome
sequence. The "Comments" below contain interpretations of
these
events that you may not have seen elsewhere.
This is a dangerous moment, but also a time of opportunity. Many
who
have dismissed the prospect of a genetically redesigned
humanity as
fantasy will now consider it seriously. They will
bring their moral
and political values to bear, deliberatively
and strategically. As more
and more people engage the threat of
a techno-eugenic future with their
hearts and their minds, we
can begin to gather and grow the collective
wisdom and strength
we will need to reject it.
1. "Globalization and Technology" Conference, NYC, Sat-Sun February 24-25
This major conference at Hunter College features 40 speakers and
25
workshops. Saturday night's plenary and sessions on Sunday
will address
human genetic engineering. A special session on
Sunday will focus on
the situation regarding human cloning and
what needs to be done.
Sponsors: International Forum on Globalization, New York Open
Center,
International Center for Technology Assessment, Turning
Point Project,
Lapis Magazine, The Nation Institute. Schedule
& logistics: <http://www.ifg.org/>.
2. "Race, Biotech and Eugenics in the New Global Millennium," NYC, February 25
From the session announcement: "It is our belief that the nature
and pace
of biotechnological developments demand attention from
progressive people
of color. Certain biotechnologies have such
power to affect society and
so little democratic input in their
development, that their development
must be prudently slowed or
stopped until such measures are in place.
Most progressive people
of color will recognize the eugenic implications
of these
technologies. The history of racism and eugenics in the
U.S.A.
call people of color and conscience to be extremely
skeptical of what
is now euphemistically called `genetic
enhancements.'"
Sunday February 25, 2-4 pm, Hunter College West Room 604. (Runs
concurrently
with the Globalization and Technology
Conference.)
Organized by Jose Morales, PhD, Director, Public Interest
Biotechnology.
Other sponsors: National Congress for Puerto
Rican Rights, Black Radical
Congress (NY Metro chapter),
Committee Against Anti-Asian Violence.
3. UC Berkeley Events Address Human Genetic Manipulation, March 12 & 14
Mon March12, 4-5 pm, "Today, Genetically Modified Food. Tomorrow,
Genetically Modified Humans? The Case Against Cloning and
Designing
Children." Sponsored by Department of Environmental
Science Policy and
Management. Speakers from the Exploratory
Initiative on the New Human
Genetic Technologies. 159 Mulford
Hall, UC Berkeley.
Wed March14, 3-6 pm, "Ethics, Genetic Technology, and Social
Responsibility in the 21st Century." Panelists: Charles Weiner,
Visiting Professor UC Berkeley; Paul Billings, GeneSage and
Council
for Responsible Genetics; Diane Beeson, CA State
University Hayward;
Marcy Darnovsky, Exploratory Initiative on
the New Human Genetic
Technologies. Townsend Center for the
Humanities, Geballe Room,
220 Stephens Hall, UC Berkeley.
1. American-Italian Team Says It Will Begin Cloning Effort
Severino Antinori and Panayiotos Zavos, the Italian and US
researchers
who say they are about to begin to clone human
children, will hold a
press conference and a "scientific
meeting" in Rome on March 9. They
claim that they will then
establish ethical guidelines for human cloning,
although they
have already announced their decision to go ahead. Antinori
and
Zavos argue that they are "responsible" cloners whose work will
prevent others who may "indiscriminately" attempt to "clone
themselves."
Public sentiment is overwhelmingly opposed to human cloning, and
many
observers have pointed to the high incidence of serious
abnormalities
in cloned animals. Even some supporters of human
cloning have criticized
Antinori's and Zavos' project, which
they view as premature and likely
to instigate an anti-cloning
backlash.
Antinori, who has run a fertility clinic in Rome since 1985,
gained
notoriety for achieving pregnancies in women up to 62
years old, and
for producing a baby using sperm that he had
matured in material
derived from rats' testicles--a method
described as "totally unethical,
premature and scientifically
dangerous." Zavos, a professor in the
Department of Animal
Sciences at the University of Kentucky, runs an
IVF clinic that
has never reported its results.
2. Biotech Industry Position on Human Cloning
On February 19, the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO)
released
a press statement containing a letter to George W. Bush
that "urg[es]
him to support continuation of the current
voluntary moratorium" on
reproductive human cloning, and warns
of the risk of "a public
backlash against responsible
biotechnology research."
BIO is of course aware that the Bush administration has already
announced its support for existing policy on human cloning,
which is
voluntary and temporary, and applies only to federally
funded research.
BIO's announcement does not constitute serious opposition to
reproduc-
tive human cloning. What is required is national
legislation that bans
the production of human children by
cloning--a provision already enacted
as law in 30 countries in
Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas.
3. David King on the Genome Announcement
The number of genes in the human genome sequence is utterly
irrelevant
to the question of genetic determinism. If we believe
in simplistic
genetic determinism, 30,000 genes is plenty. But
very few serious
scientists have, for many years, and that
doesn't stop them from
genetic engineering, including
engineering human beings. They can
still manipulate the system,
and within their own narrow criteria
of success, they often
succeed.
So what's going on here? The medical and scientific
establishments are
terrified of a public backlash similar to what
has been seen with GE
foods. So for some time now their PR
strategy has been to dismiss
naive genetic determinism. This
allows them to appear liberal, and
helps calm down people's
fears.
There is a bona fide debate on the influence of genes and
environment,
and scientifically the jury is still out. The answer
does make a real
difference to what we believe the genetic
engineers and eugenicists
can accomplish, and therefore how
scared we should be. . ..[G]enetic
determinism as an ideology is
wrong and pernicious, but that doesn't
mean that there aren't
some completely straightforward, fairly simple,
or only slightly
complex genetic determinations out there.
David King is the editor of GenEthics News.
IV. POINTERS: SAMPLING OF ARTICLES ON HUMAN CLONING AND TECHNO-EUGENICS
January 12: World's First GM Monkey Brings Prospect of "GE Humans" Closer.
(date) Disastrous Step For Mankind
Tonight, the House of Lords
must decide whether to approve legislation
to allow human cloning
for therapeutic purposes: a decision that may
prove momentous,
not only for this country but also for the human race.
January 22: Is ANDi a Miracle or a Monster?
Roger Scruton is
Britain's best known writer on philosophy and a former
professor
at Birkbeck College, London, and Boston University. "I have
this
horrible vision of a future in which there are no young people
any
more, except those manufactured by the bionic geriatrics who
control
things."
January 26: Italian, US Scientists Unveil Human Cloning
Effort
CHICAGO (Reuters) - An international group of reproductive
experts
plans to launch a serious effort to clone humans to
provide children
to infertile couples.
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010126/ts/cloning_dc_1.html
January 28: Cloning Advances Outrace Regulators
WASHINGTON
(UPI)--Rapid advances in the fields of embryology, genomics,
and
in-vitro fertilization and genetic screening have increased
chances
that a human clone will be born in the coming months.
Will Washington
take regulatory aim?
January 29: The business of playing God
By MARTIN HUTCHINSON,
UPI Business and Economics Editor
WASHINGTON (UPI)--[L]et us set
aside the ethical issues for a moment,
and consider the potential
business of playing God. How big will it be,
and what will be its
characteristics? In Part 1, I look at the market
for cloning
itself; Part 2. . .will examine the markets for
genetic
manipulation and de novo creation of life.
January 30: Cloned human planned 'by 2003'
BBC News--Panos
Zavos: The world must "come to grips with cloning."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1144000/1144694.stm
January 31: Human cloning plans spark uproar
Plans by doctors
to clone the first human being have been blasted by one
of the
world's top experts in animal cloning, who warned of a high risk
that the child may die prematurely or endure life as a
cripple.
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/health/story_7979.asp
February2:
Japan_Issues_Warning_To_Scientists_On_Human_Cloning_Project
TOKYO
(AP)--Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori instructed his science
minister
Friday to take steps to prevent Japanese researchers and
doctors from
participating in an international project to clone
human beings.
February2: Canada Cult Aims to Clone Dead Child
NEW YORK
(Reuters Health)--High-tech fertility technology will merge
with
an "X-Files" plot Sunday, February 4, when the New York
Times Magazine
devotes its cover to the Raelians, a Canada-based
cult that claims it is
well on its way to cloning the first
human.
February4: Australian Scientist Horrified at Human Clone
Plan
Two international medical scientists are trying to lure
Victoria's top
reproductive scientist, Alan Trounson, into a
taboo-busting project aimed
at cloning the first human being.
Trounson's reply: "I'm sure they would
like anybody who would add
credibility to the team to go on it. No way.
No way!"
http://www.theage.com.au/news/2001/02/04/FFXPQ246QIC.html
February5: Humans May Be Cloned `Sooner Than Anybody
Thinks'
By Cheryl K. Chumley CNS Staff Writer
February 6: Are We Becoming Desensitized to Idea of
Cloning?
By Cheryl K. Chumley, CNS Staff Writer
February7: Cloning's real cost is human dignity
By NICHOLAS
TONTI-FILIPPINI
February7: Quests build to clone humans
The Christian Science
Monitor--Cloning humans is banned in 23 countries.
But scientists
are pushing the technology forward.
February8: Cloning Cult Opens Door to Brave New World
http://www.newsday.com/columnists/stories/thursday/nd8261.htm
February8: Romania Bans Human Cloning
BUCHAREST (Monitorul
Online) Yesterday, deputies decided to forbid human
cloning in
Romania, by passing a draft bill which ratified the
European
Convention concerning the protection of the human rights
and that of the
human being's dignity.
February10: `Designer' Humans' only 30 years away
Genetically
modified human beings will exist within 30 years, an
eminent
scientist predicted yesterday. Dr Francis Collins, a
leader of the project
to decode the human genome, said mankind
would inevitably start tinkering
with its genetic make-up to
"take control of evolution."
February10: French President Wants Ban on Human Cloning
LYONS,
France--French President Jacques Chirac criticized
Britain's
decision last month to let scientists clone human
embryos for medical
research, and called for an international ban
on the practice. Therapeutic
cloning, Chirac said, "leads to the
creation of embryos for the purposes
of research and the
production of cells and, in spite of the ban, makes
reproductive
cloning practically possible and leads to the risk of
trafficking
in eggs."
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2001/2/10/103138.shtml
V. ABOUT GENETIC CROSSROADS (formerly Techno-Eugenics Email Newsletter)
This newsletter originated in 1999 out of the concerns of
academics,
activists, and others in the San Francisco Bay Area
about the direction
of the new human genetic and reproductive
technologies. It is published
by the Exploratory Initiative on
the New Human Genetic Technologies, a
public interest
organization working to alert the public and leaders of
civil
society about the urgent need for societal oversight of
these
technologies and the dangers of the techno-eugenic
vision.
We support genetic and reproductive technologies that serve the
public
interest. We oppose those--especially human germline
engineering and
human reproductive cloning--that would be likely
to exacerbate inequality,
the commercialization of reproduction,
and the commodification of human
genes and tissues.
GENETIC CROSSROADS is published approximately once a month.
Feedback,
submissions, and suggestions are welcome. Marcy
Darnovsky will moderate.
Please forward GENETIC CROSSROADS to
others who may be interested.
Exploratory Initiative staff, San Francisco:
Marcy Darnovsky,
Ph.D. <genetic-crossroads@genetics-and-society.org>
Richard
Hayes, M.A. <richard.hayes@genetics-and-society.org>
Tania
Simoncelli, M.S. <tania@publicmediacenter.org>
Exploratory
Initiative staff, Washington DC:
Douglas Hunt, Ph.D.
<dhunt@hgtinitiative.org>
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