Submitted by [email protected]
Genetic engineering is a radical new technology, one
that breaks down fundamental genetic barriers -- not only between
species, but between humans, animals, and plants. By combining the genes
of dissimilar and unrelated species, permanently altering their genetic
codes, novel organisms are created that will pass the genetic changes
onto their offspring through heredity. Scientists are now snipping,
inserting, recombining, rearranging, editing, and programming genetic
material. Animal genes and even human genes are being inserted into
plants or animals creating unimagined transgenic life forms. For the
first time in history, human beings are becoming the architects of life.
Bio-engineers will be creating tens of thousands of novel organisms over
the next few years. The prospect is frightening. Genetic engineering
poses unprecedented ethical and social concerns, as well as serious
challenges to the environment, human health, animal welfare, and the
future of agriculture. The following is just a sample of concerns:
The genetic engineering and patenting of animals reduces
living beings to the status of manufactured products and will result in
much suffering. In January 1994, then-USDA Secretary Mike Espy announced
that USDA scientists had completed genome "road maps" for cattle and
pigs, a precursor to ever more experimentation on live animals. In
addition to the cruelty inherent in such experimentation (the mistakes
are born with painful deformities, crippled, blind, and so on), these
"manufactured" creatures have no greater value to their "creators" than
mechanical inventions. Animals genetically engineered for use in
laboratories, such as the infamous "Harvard mouse" which contains a
human cancer-causing gene that will be passed down to all succeeding
generations, were created to suffer. A purely reductionist science,
biotechnology reduces all life to bits of information (genetic code)
that can be arranged and rearranged at whim. Stripped of their integrity
and sacred qualities, animals who are merely objects to their
"inventors" will be treated as such. Currently, more than 200
genetically
engineered "freak" animals are awaiting patent approval from the federal
government.
Farm animal productivity:
Much genetic engineering is aimed at getting farm animals to grow bigger
and more rapidly. Yet health studies stress that people should be
reducing their intake of animal products: a vegetarian diet reduces the
risk of chronic diseases and increases life expectancy. Similarly, use
of the genetically engineered growth hormone BST (bovine somatotropin)
to boost milk yields is nonsensical, since not only should people be
reducing their consumption of dairy products but in Europe and the USA
there is already a glut of milk. Use of the artificial hormone,
according to one of the major manufacturers, Monsanto, puts cows "at an
increased risk of clinical mastitis [a painful udder infection]". Other
side effects include indigestion, bloat, diarrhea, leg and foot problems
and anemia.
[Source: Information Sheet supplied by Monsanto to US farmers.]
Human consumers are also at increased risk of
contracting breast and gastro-intestinal cancer, according to Samuel
Epstein, Professor of Environmental and Occupational Medicine,
University of Illinois.
[Source: Farmers Weekly, 1996, 26 January, p8]
Biomedical Research:
Another application is to develop new 'animal models' that more closely
mimic human illness. Using transgenic and knockout mice, researchers
have created animals with neurological disease, cancer, cystic fibrosis,
severe arterial plaque, sickle-cell anemia, liver damage and many other
conditions. But whatever miracles the new technology hopes to perform it
cannot transform mice into miniature people, and the results cannot be
relied upon. In the case of 'cystic fibrosis mice,' the animals do
become ill but
there are differences from the disease in people: most importantly, the
animals' lungs do not become infected or blocked with mucous as they do
in human patients. It is lung infections that kill 95 per cent of people
with cystic fibrosis
[Source: Editorial, Lancet, 1992, September 19, p702-703].
Retinoblastomas are tumors of the developing retina and
are reported to arise when a cancer-suppressing gene is disabled in some
way. However, when a similar gene is disrupted in mice, the animals do
not develop retinal tumors. Robin Holliday of the CSIRO Laboratory for
Molecular Biology in
Australia explains that such differences should not surprise since
"tumor-suppressor genes and oncogenes [cancer genes] behave very
differently in mouse and man."
[Source: Nature, 1992, November 26, p305.]
Transgenic and knockout animals are also being used to
test gene therapies. However, the successful incorporation of genes into
cells can be studied in the test tube: one therapeutic approach is to
remove cells from the human patient, incorporate healthy genes into
these cells in a test tube and, finally, return them to the patient, in
the hope that the introduced gene s will produce enough healthy cells to
remedy the illness. Ultimately, of course, it is clinical,
patient-oriented studies that give the most valid results.
Biological 'factories' (transplants/production of
biological products):
A further application of genetic engineering is to produce animal organs
for transplant purposes. The Cambridge-based, Imutran, is one of the
companies now breeding pigs with a human gene in an attempt to create
animal organs that will not be rejected so easily during human
transplant operations. In the past, cross-species transplants (xenotransplants)
always failed because the differences between people and animals are so
great. During 1995, reports from Imutran indicated that transgenic pig
hearts have been transplanted into macaque monkeys, the average survival
time being a mere 40 days. Nevertheless, this is said to exceed
expectations, so that human trials are anticipated in the near future.
The usual justification for using animal organs is a lack of human
donors. One possible solution that
could be investigated is to introduce an opt-out scheme (where organs
are presumed to be available after death unless otherwise indicated).
The idea of animal-to-human transplants was endorsed by the influential
Nuffield Council on Bioethics, so long as certain safeguards and ethical
procedures were followed. But, despite the existence of the transgenic
pig, the Council saw major problems and dangers. "Even if hyperacute
rejection [in which the recipient's immune system rapidly destroys the
incoming organ] can be controlled, there will be other immunological
barriers to acceptance of the xenograft by the recipient. There may also
be biochemical and physiological incompatibilities between pig organs
and human beings."
[Source: Animal-to-Human Transplants - the ethics of
xenotransplantation.
Nuffield Council on Bioethics, March 1996, p36]
Nuffield pointed to another major problem: "It is not
possible to predict or quantify the risk that xenotransplantation will
result in the emergence of new human diseases. But in the worst case,
the consequences could be far-reaching and difficult to control."
[Source: Nuffield Council report, p116] Nuffield was referring to the
fear that animal organs will contain unknown and therefore
unscreened-for viruses and other disease organisms that prove deadly to
people. There must be similar risks of contamination from animals
genetically engineered to produce
pharmaceutical products, such as blood clotting factors, in their milk.
Known as 'commercial bioreactors', these animals represent another major
business application of genetic engineering. Some carefully-screened
biological products can be obtained from human donors, while
non-sentient organisms, such as genetically engineered bacteria and
cells, could also be used.
Patenting animals:
Much of the storm over genetically engineered animals has focused on the
right to patent living creatures. Patenting animals reduces them to the
level of inanimate objects - mere 'inventions, to be exploited as deemed
necessary. Patenting animals must also encourage more experimentation,
since companies have a major incentive to breed and market these
creatures before the patent expires. The first animal to be patented, in
America during 1988, was Harvard University's 'oncomouse', designed to
develop cancer. The patent applied not just to mice but to any non-human
mammal with an inserted
oncogene. Although several other transgenic animals have since been
patented in the US, the situation in Europe is yet to be finalized. In
March 1995, the European Parliament rejected the idea of patenting
living things, and whilst it is the European Patent Office (EPO) in
Munich (together with individual patent offices in member countries)
that is actually responsible for the granting of patents, the
Parliament's decision is an important ethical lead and a strong signal
to the EPO.
Conclusion:
The genetics revolution has provided even greater incentives for
exploiting animals. But there are also risks for human beings and the
environment. For all our sakes, genetics research must be subject to
increased and impartial scrutiny. You can find more information on this
by going to the following link:
The Info Source
http://www.purefood.org/text.html
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