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GENETIC CROSSROADS #15
February 21, 2001
Supporting responsible uses of human genetic technologies
Opposing the new techno-eugenics
 (formerly the Techno-Eugenics Email Newsletter)
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CONTENTS

I.   EDITORS' NOTE

II.  UPCOMING EVENTS

1. "Globalization and Technology" Conference, NYC, Feb 24-25

2. "Race, Biotech and Eugenics in the New Global Millennium,"         NYC, Feb 25

3. UC Berkeley Events Address Human Genetic Manipulation,          Mar 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

V.   ABOUT GENETIC CROSSROADS

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I.  EDITORS' NOTE

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.

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II.  UPCOMING EVENTS

1. "Globalization and Technology" Conference, NYC, Sat-Sun Feb 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: <www.ifg.org>.

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2. "Race, Biotech and Eugenics in the New Global Millennium," NYC, Feb 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 Feb 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.

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3. UC Berkeley Events Address Human Genetic Manipulation, Mar 12 & 14

Mon Mar 12, 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 Mar 14, 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.

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III. COMMENTS

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.

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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.

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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.

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IV.  POINTERS: SAMPLING OF ARTICLES ON HUMAN CLONING AND TECHNO-EUGENICS

Jan 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.

Jan 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."

Jan 26: Italian, U.S. 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

Jan 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?

Jan 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.

Jan 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

Jan 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

Feb 2: 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.

Feb 2: 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.

Feb 4: 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

Feb 5: Humans May Be Cloned `Sooner Than Anybody Thinks' By Cheryl K. Chumley CNS Staff Writer

Feb. 6: Are We Becoming Desensitized to Idea of Cloning? By Cheryl K. Chumley, CNS Staff Writer

Feb 7: Cloning's real cost is human dignity By NICHOLAS TONTI-FILIPPINI

Feb 7: Quests build to clone humans

The Christian Science Monitor--Cloning humans is banned in 23 countries. But scientists are pushing the technology forward.

Feb 8: Cloning Cult Opens Door to Brave New World http://www.newsday.com/columnists/stories/thursday/nd8261.htm

Feb 8: 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.

Feb 10: `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."

Feb 10: 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

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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.  <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Richard Hayes, M.A.     <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Tania Simoncelli, M.S.  <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Exploratory Initiative staff, Washington DC:
Douglas Hunt, Ph.D.     <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
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