The DNA strand on the cover is a photo of a classroom DNA model. After scanning it into the computer we distorted & lengthened it by pasting new copies of the strand end to end. So now after having performed gene splicing (recombinant (r)DNA), tee hee, I submit for your digestion one `blurb burp' scientific paper. Pepper this proverbial food for thought with optional grains of salt as I don't have a string of fancy initials trailing my name & I am, after all, only "a member of the popular media." (circulation-Scientific American, English, per year: 7,596,000, Bio/Technology, per year: 120,000, itch: 3,500). An expanded version of this verbiage (complete with page numbers of quotes) is on Nettwerk's BBS: 604 732 7007.
A little gene generalities first. DNA, as we know, is `the blueprint of life'. Every plant/animal species & individual has their own unique genetic/DNA `fingerprint'. A DNA strand or molecule is made up of an arrangement of 4 chemicals called nucleotide bases. Each differing arrangement or sequence of these nucleotides along the DNA molecule defines a gene. These genes are, in effect, `instruction manuals' for making different proteins. Genes are situated on chromosomes which are located in a cell's nucleus. There are about 3 billion of these nucleotide subunits in each gene and about 100,000 different genes in a human. In humans, this collection of genes is often referred to as the Human Genome.
Transgene Animals
Transgene animals or plants are, according to the U.S. Patents Office phraseology, "inventions" & "manufactures" which have one plant or animal's gene or genes artificially introduced into a differing plant or animal's genetic structure. Examples: Human genes spliced into Canola plant to depollute contaminated soil. (Health Action, Oc/93). Cows producing human mother's milk protein lactoferin. (NY Times, Fe3/93). DNX of Princeton N.J. is working on Xenografts which are transgene animals that can supply organs like hearts for human transplant recipients. (Bio/Tech., Jl93). "At the Army Research Lab in Natick, Mass., biotechnologists cloned the silk producing gene of the Golden Orb weaver spider & spliced it into bacteria that in turn produce large quantities of spider silk protein...for bullet-proof vests, helmets..." (Humane Society US News (HSUS), Fall/92). Organs from human fetuses transplanted into mice to create "a new variety of `humanized' rodents for medical experimentation." (USA Today, No2/90). To date an estimated 10,000 varieties of transgene mice have been created. (HSUS, Fall/92). It is estimated that 99% or more of the genes in mice & humans are the same & serve quite similar purposes. (Scientific American, Mr/94).
Transgene Patents & Commerce
"Patents are the lifeblood of the biotech industry." (L. Raines, Industrial Biotechnology Assoc., The Wall St. Journal, Ap/92). The US Supreme Court ruled in 1980 that novel living organisms can be patented. This was the Chakrabarty oil eating bacteria, patent held by General Electric. (A. Kimbrell, The Human Body Shop (THBS)) & also the Cohen-Boyer decision. The transgene patent allows a company to prohibit anyone else from using or selling such animals, & their offspring, without its permission for 17 years, and may also cover the pharmaceutical proteins or antibodies the animal might produce. (N.Y. Times, Fe3/93).
As of Jan `93 more than 180 US and 100 European transgene animal patent applications have been filed. (New Scientist Ja16 & Fe13/93). There are about 6 patents for transgene animals granted in the US & one, at least, in Europe. Canada's 1990 Bill C-15, the Plant Breeder's Rights Act (PBR), is similar to US patents in the respect that commercial use of the plant is protected (for 18 years). No transgene plants have been granted PBR status yet. Humans aren't patentable based on the interpretation of the antislavery (US) 13th amendment. However human embryos, fetuses, cell tissues & genes are patentable. (THBS). "An American medical college & a biotech co. have applied to the European Patent Office (EPO) to protect a method of producing pharmaceutical products in the mammary glands of all mammals, including humans."(The Independent, Fe19/92).
Since 1987, 9 bills have been before (US) Congress to limit animal patenting, but none have made it into law. (THBS). The US Gov't is attempting to deregulate the biotech industry. (New Scientist, Ma25/91). "Then there are the intellectual property provisions envisioned by GATT, which will enforce patent protections granted in the First World in developing countries." (Now Mag., De15/94).
Two transgene animals that are (US) patented are:
1) Rabbit with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus in it. Patent #5,183,949.
Assignee is US Gov't Dep't of Health & Human
Services. As a side note, from the patent document, "Rabbits taken out of
their cages for weighing, bleeding or other procedures are never left
unattended & are transported to treatment rooms in a restraining box on a
laboratory cart. Those entering the room must wear disposable lab gowns or
coveralls, face masks & shoe covers; eye protection is worn for bleeding
or any procedure that may result in splashing of blood or other body fluid."
2) The ONCO mouse, a 'model' to study cancer, which carries an implanted human
oncogene which causes it to develop cancer. (New Scientist, Ja16/93). Patent
#4,736,866, Ap/88, Harvard College. (Oncogenes encode proteins that play
important roles in a virus's life cycle.)
"...the US gov't expects that (biotech) industry to be generating annual revenue of $50 billion by the year 2000." (Wall St. J., Ap17/92). "In addition to weaponry, the US remains supreme in such technologies as supercomputers, software & biotechnology." (NY Times, Mr4/91). "The Wright Brothers...couldn't afford to build anything more than test craft until they won a contract in 1908 to provide planes for the US War Dep't. So it is with genetic engineering."(Nat. Journal, Nov6/93). "Animal patents will provide a massive financial incentive to experiment in the exploitation & genetic engineering of animals in laboratory and factory farms." (M. Eames, British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection, New Scientist, Ma29/93).
Jim Miles, the licensing manager of Dupont (who invested $15million into Harvard U. to develop the ONCO mouse) says of the mouse, "On cancer treatments, the royalties could have been billions." (New Scientist, Jn26/93). "By Harvard's own admission, cancer research using the ONCO mouse would take place whether the mouse was patented or not . The patent, the opponents point out, does not permit morally desirable cancer research, but merely guarantees profits to the onco-mouse's inventor." (New Scientist, Ja16/93).
"Several companies appear to be placing their biggest bets on molecular `pharming', the technique of using genetically engineered animals to produce valuable drugs." (NY Times, Fe3/93). Regarding transgene milk and human chemical producing farm animals, H. Bialy writes "taken together their results provide a convincing demonstration of the feasibility of using animals as commercial bioreactors." (Bio/Tech., Se1/91). Of a genetically engineered Bovine Growth Hormone, the only beneficiaries are the manufactures & the large farms. (M.Nestle, chairwomen, NY university nutrition dep't & consumer representative on the Food & Drug Administration's (FDA) advisory panel, San Francisco Chronicle, May 24/93). The Dan Quayle announced FDA May 92 policy proposal considers genetically engineered foods, not as food additives, but as foods equivalent to their naturally bred counterparts, thus eliminating the need for safety checks & labeling, except when genes from known allergens are used. (Chicago Tribune, Fe20/94).
The industry hopes to make crops tolerate more herbicides so that they can spray more chemicals... The companies can then control the food supply by creating crops which can only survive their herbicide." (Health Action, Oc/93). "In Oct/92, Agracetus, a division of W.R. Grace & Co. was awarded a US Patent covering all genetically engineered cotton. Because this patent is the first to cover an entire species, opponents fear that Agracetus, & its licensees, have been given the green light to monopolize all genetic improvements in cotton." (Bio/Tech., Jl/94).
The Human Genome Project is a $3 billion effort by the U.S. National Institute of Health (NIH) and the U.S. Dep't of Energy (DOE), to `map' all the human DNA base sequences. Other gov'ts are involved as well. Hundreds of complete genes, often claiming broad commercial rights to their potential diagnostic & therapeutic use, have been patented. In 1991/2 the NIH filed 6,122 patents relating not to complete human genes but rather to small gene fragments (called complementary DNA or cDNA). Japan has filed for 70 cDNA patents, Britain 1,100, while France "opposes patenting gene fragments on both moral & practical grounds." (Science News, Se4/93).
The DOE funds about 6 universities for cDNA sequencing. Most large universities now have technology-transfer offices that push to patent discoveries with commercial potential... (& like companies) are not legally bound to disclose their patent activity. (B. Wuethrich, ibid). "Genes equals money", "We've seen 40,000 human genes, more than anyone else. We have a chance to make it huge!" (W. Haseltine, Human Genome Sciences chief exec., USA Today Mr22/94). Author Wuethrich sums "So fast & furious is the race to identify human genes that within several years..a small number of corporations, universities, & gov'ts may soon `own' life's genetic code."
Opinions & Politics
"Sheer lunacy" is how James Watson, co-discover of DNA structure describes the NIH gene fragment patent application. He resigned as head of the human genome project to underscore his point. "Where do you draw the line? Can you patent a hand?" (Dr. Quesenberry, medical affairs vice chairman, Leukemia Society of America, commenting on Systemix's (Palo Alto, Ca.) "laying claim (patent granted) to owning such a basic element of human life (bone marrow stem cell)," Wall St. J., Ap17/92). "Will future generations follow the ethic of this patent policy & view life as mere chemical manufacture & invention with no greater value or meaning than industrial products?" (US Senator M. Hatfield, THBS). "What we're seeing here is the conversion of DNA into a commodity & it is in some ways the ideal corporate commodity- it's small, it's ownable, it's easily transportable, & it lasts forever." (J. Rifkin, The New Yorker, Jl19/93).
"With some relief, most biologists turn away from so vast & uncomfortable an issue & take refuge in the still knotty but infinitely easier technical questions, not 'whether' to proceed, but 'how'." (G. Wald, The Sciences, Se/76). "Gene synthesizers...combine computers with biochemistry in order to assemble amino acids in a desired sequence, which is keyed into a computer program." (H. Menzies, `FastForward & Out Of Control'). "College biology students are using the recombinant DNA technology now, & before long it will be possible to synthesize DNA with a home chemistry set. "(The New Yorker, Jl19/93). "This simplicity has raised concern about the proliferation of such methods in the hands of people with perhaps less-than-mature professional & ethical judgement, & with insufficient skill to contain bacterial cultures in the laboratory." (Dr. J. Lederberg, `The Recombinant DNA Debate').
"Scientists like to think they are rational, factual & strictly impartial & that those are the only rules to play by when debating the merits of technology. They get extremely uneasy when fuzzy things like values, emotions, beliefs & convictions creep into the arguments." (D. Caneff, Exec. Dir. Wisconsin Rural Dev'l. Center, North American Review,Mr/90). Australian Universities are "churning out" many engineering, medicine & other science graduates who are "skilled barbarians", "culturally illiterate" & "incapable of relating to the rest of society." (Aust. Senator T. Aulich's 2 year inquiry, Vancouver Province, Jn28/90). "It's like teaching your pet cat a few new tricks." Chakrabarty said of the "gene shuffling" to make his microbe. (People Mag.,Jl14/80). "Agri-business representatives dismiss the Chefs (1500 top chefs demanding (rDNA) food labeling) as `nutritional neurotics,' calling their mov't just another example of fuzz-headed environmental terrorism." (Omni June/93). "Science has advanced further than the bulk of society in these matters. We are in a state something like medieval Europe, when the people were way behind the thinkers." (Dr. Wever, Nat. Program Leader for the US Dep't of Agriculture, N.A. Review, Mr/91). "He (Descartes) was the first to have demonstrated perfectly that animals are pure machines...which compels all scientists & competent judges to confess that those proud & vain beings, men...are, at bottom only animals & perpendicularly crawling machines." (Enlightenment philosopher Offray de La Mettrie in his `Man A Machine,' year 1748, in `Dederot & Descartes'). "What the ability to manipulate genes should indicate to people is the very deep extent to which we are biological machines. The traditional view is built on the foundation that life is sacred...Well, not anymore. It's no longer possible to live by the idea that there is something special, unique, even sacred about living organisms." (Dr. R Haynes, Pres. of the 16th International Congress on Genetics, New Haven Register, Au28, 1988).
Regarding the new anitibiotic drug resistant superbugs "They're so much older than we are...& wiser." (Dr. R. Wenzel, U. of Iowa, Newsweek, Mr28/94). 31 deaths & more than 1500 serious illnesses resulted when the Japanese Co. Showa Denko sold its FDA approved genetically engineered (non labeled) L-tryptophan dietary supplement. (Science 619 Nv2/90, NY Times Jn1/92). "Once created (new organisms), they cannot be recalled." (G. Wald, Nobel Prize, The Sciences, Se/76).
"Information made public by the EPO shows that universities & companies are developing an expanding army of small animals that are genetically programmed to suffer." (NY Times, Fe3/93). The EPO Appeal Board in the ONCO cancer mouse raised questions of animal suffering. R Bizley, a lawyer trying to patent the ONCO mouse writes, "Using animals for testing purposes...is 'a necessary evil,' given the requirements of drug clearance authorities." (Bio/Tech., Jl/91).
"Genetic testing could soon reduce people to `human bar codes... It's a terrific tool for discrimination.' Oscapella said that unencumbered collection & use of genetic information could lead to eugenics - genetic engineering of humans." (`Genetic Testing & Privacy' Canadian Gov't study, Van. Sun, Ma21/92). "A (`93) report by the US Nat. Academy of Sciences last year found that Americans are already losing their jobs & health insurance based on information uncovered in genetic screens." (Time Mag., Ja17/94) & regarding DNA legalities "You're going to see craziness you won't believe" (G. Annas, Prof. Health Law, Boston U., ibid). The FBI are collecting genetic information & the army collects a DNA sample from every recruit. (Dr. Billings, chief of Genetic Medicine at The Ca. Pacific Medical Center, San Francisco Chronicle, Fe17/92). Speaking of centralized DNA files on US citizens, "We fear this is a backdoor to eugenics." (M.Tendler, prof.of biology & talmudic studies at Yeshiv U. in N.Y., ibid.).
"The Nordic Idea' written (1932) for the official journal of the Nazi Physicians League argued that racial hygienists must learn from the US..." 19 countries, including US & Canada, had sterilization laws. 50,707 Americans were sterilized by 1950. "Paul Martini, in a 1947 speech before the German Society for Internal Medicine, noted that the physicians facing charges before the Nuremberg military tribunals were part of "the flesh & spirit of contemporary medicine"- the medicine not just of Germany but of the entire modern world" (R. Proctor, `Racial Hygiene: Medicine under the Nazis'). "At the end of the Nuremberg trials for Nazi war criminals, US judges helped write the Nuremberg code. It called on scientists to adhere to humanitarian principals in any experiments using human subjects." "Those codes of ethics...were not taken seriously in America by scientists." (Dr. A. Caplan, Van. Sun, De29/93). (He's at the Centre for Biomedical Ethics, 420 Delaware St. S.E. Box 33 UMHC, Minneapolis, Mn. 55455).
"It is just as well that it (eugenics) did die because we have seen in Nazism where it may lead. I think it is no accident that the Nazi doctrines about sterilization were closely linked, intellectually & morally, to Nazi doctrines about genocide. That is why I am so alarmed to see what is happening today. Apparently we are beginning a 2nd cycle of eugenic doctrines supported by some brilliant & misguided scientists, & which I am afraid will attract its quota of humbugs as well. (F. Clark, Dir. of Agricultural Economic Inst., Oxford, `Man & His Future (M&HF)). "Some may think of rescuing man from the prospect of nuclear annihilation by recasting the genes for aggression, or acquiescence, that are supposed to predestine a future of territorial conflict." (Dr. Lederberg, Nobel Prize, BioScience, De15/70). "Are we to believe that one more character flaw can be blamed on that trendy & handy biological scapegoat, the gene? Get serious." (letters, Time Mag., Se5/94). ("...the evidence from the animal kingdom suggests that warfare among mankind is a cultural phenomon, not inborn." (S. Carrighar, N.Y. Times Mag. Se10/67)). Genetic authority Dr. B. Davis, Harvard Med. School, would like to see the cloning of those who excel "in fields such as mathematics or music."(Science, De18/70). Nobelist "J.B.Haldane favors a state-supported retirement at the age of 55 so that you could then raise & train your own clone to assume its place in society." (T. Howard, 'Who Sould Play God?'). In early 1991, the Nat. Museum of Health & Medicine announced its intention & was granted American Medical Assoc. permission to clone tissue samples of Abraham Lincoln." (THBS). "This is taken for granted because it is part of Christian ethics, but in terms of humanist ethics I do not see why people should have the right to have children." (F. Crick, Nobel Prize in Medicine, M&HF). "The eugenics mov't seemed to Chesterton to be part of the encroaching new tyranny of science." "However, the principal danger of eugenics seemed...to lie less in the misguided doctors who propagated it than in the class interests it served." (M.Canovan, 'G.K. Chesterton: Radical Populist'). "There is now no reasonable excuse for refusing to face the fact that nothing but a eugenics religion can save our civilization from the fate that has overtaken all previous civilization." (George Bernard Shaw in `Eugenics: Hereditarian Attitudes in American Thought,' by M. Haller). "I could show (that war had) done and (is) doing much..for the progress of civilization.." & "Looking to the world at a not very distant date...an endless number of lower races will have been eliminated by the higher civilized races throughout the world." (Charles Darwin, cited in THBS).
"Poor nations appear likely to face severe difficulties created by the successes of biotechnology." "...U.S. consumption is so profligate that the birth of an average American baby is hundreds of times more of a disaster for Earth's life-support systems than the birth of a baby in a desperately poor nation..." (P. Ehrlich, Prof. of Population Studies, Stanford U., in `The Population Explosion'). "The US, with 6% of the world's population consumes about a 1/3 of its resources." "Concessions to foreign companies are likely to be expropriated or subjected to arbitrary intervention. Whether through gov't action, labor conflicts, sabotage, or civil disturbance, the smooth flow of needed materials will be jeopardized. Although population pressure is not the only factor involved, these types of frustrations are much less likely under conditions of slow or zero population growth." "In some cases, strong direction has involved incentives such as payment to acceptors for sterilizations..." (National Security Study Memorandum 200: Implications of Worldwide Population Growth for US Security & Overseas Interests, De10/74). "At one point, a lot of us who were aware of the situation (35,000 children a day dying from starvation & its related diseases) thought the answer to the 'why?' was over population..." "Why? Politics, Religion & Greed." "...no one investigates why political power is being used to keep food from children.." (C. Churchman, Philosophy of Science, Mr/94). The Trilateral commission is "designed to minimize the friction & competition that divide the (corporate) giants & make them vulnerable to the organizing efforts of the poor." It involves "the withering of the nation-state." The order for the future will likely be "Pax Americana militarily, Pax Trilateral economically." "NAFTA is the Trilateral's baby." (Covert Action #47, 1500 Massachusetts Ave.NW, #732, Wash., DC 20005). "Biotechnology is the one major industry in which the US is the undisputed world leader; the profits from these products will flow into our country & make us rich again." (The New Yorker, Jl19/93).
The May 23/67 CIA Inspector General's Report states that Executive Action Capability is "a general standby capability to carry out assasinations when required." (Van. Sun, No18/93). "If I could find a way to get him out of there, even putting a contract out on him, assuming the CIA still did that sort of a thing, assuming it ever did, I would be for it." (R. Nixon, 60 minutes CBS, Ap14/91). Senator Frank Church's 1976 report exposed CIA covert operations in which biological agents were used. (People's Weekly World, Ma28/94). 'Paperclip' was a US project to employ German scientists in sensitive military & space programs after World War 2. Blome, the (3rd) highest-ranking Nazi doctor (Racial Hygiene), was interviewed in 1947 by 4 representatives from the chemical & biological warfare Camp Detrick, Maryland, & in 1951 signed a contract to work for the Army Chemical Corps. (Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Ap/85). When the Fort Detrick lab was turned, by Pres. Nixon, into the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in 1971, the Army Centre of Infectious Diseases remained. The management & operation of the NCI was subcontracted to Litton Bionetics, owned by Litton Industries, a major defence contractor. (NY Times, Jn25/72 & `Chemical & Biological Warfare: Americas Hidden Arsenal' by S. Hersch).
"It is theroretically possible to develop so called ethnic chemical weapons which would be designed to exploit naturally occuring differences in vulnerability among specific population groups." (1975 American Military Manual, cited in D. Emory broadcast on AIDS, ph.# 415 346 1840). Iceberg tip of the day, from document: Dr. MacCarther's presentation at the U.S. House Appropriation Subcomittee Hearing for Defense Appropriations fiscal year 1969-70, "Within the next 5 to 10 years it would probably be possible to make a new infective microorganism which could differ in certain important aspects from any known disease causing organisms. Most important of these is that it may be refractory (to be resistant to or to break down) to the immuniological & therapeutic processes upon which we depend to maintain our relative freedom from infectious disease."
"Some of the most important choices about a nation's physical health are made, or not made, by a handful of men, in secret, &, again in legal form, by men who normally are not able to comprehend the arguments in depth." (C. Snow, 1960 Godkin Lecture at Harvard, `Science & Gov't'). "The phrase conspiracy theory is one of those that's constantly brought up & I think its effect simply is to discourage institutional analysis." (N. Chomsky, Prof. of Modern Languages, MIT, in `Manufacturing Consent' (film)). "Sen. Ted Kennedy has remarked that society must give its concent to technological innovation." (The rDNA Debate). "More than 85% of those questioned want information about genetic engineering listed on food labels." "Consumers need to be able to vote with their forks." (M. Melon, Union of Concerned Scientists, Kansas City Star, Mr7/94).
"Genetic engineering is the final enclosure movement. It is the culmination of the enclosure of the village commons that began 500 years ago. As we have developed as a society & we have moved from an agricultural to a pyrochemical to a biotechnical culture we have seen that whoever controls land or the fossil fuels or, now, the DNA, controls society. Control the gene pool & you control life!" (J. Rifkin, The New Yorker, Jl19/93). (He works with The Pure Food Campaign, 1130 17th St. NW Suite 630, Washington D.C. 20036 ).
"Of course, pure science can, & often does, run to applied science & especially technology, with the claim that the highly useful technologies, like agriculture, transportation & medicine, all arose out of pure science. So did guns, bombs, poisons, floods, pollution, torture & political power & so on. In fact the score of the game of technology is still not in, nor is it clear what is contributing to the good side's score." "I suggest that there is such an activity as the managing (eg.ethics) of the scientific enterprise, & that its neglect has led to an unfortunate state of affairs relating to the future of the world, & of the future of science itself." (Churchman, scientist & past editor-in-chief, Philosopy of Science, Mr/94).
"The world was unprepared socially, politically & ethically for the advent of nuclear power. Now, biological research is in a ferment, creating & promising methods of interference with `natural processes' which could destroy or could transform nearly every aspect of human life which we value." (G. Wolstenholme, CIBA Foundation, M&HF). "The knowledge that we find of nature...may yet produce very terrible instruments of major war different than the bombs...We can only hope that they will increasingly appear irrelevant & thus in the end preposterous, that some day we will look back ashamed of how stupid we were." (J.R. Oppenheimer, head of the 'Manhattan Project' that built the first atomic bombs, in' Uncommon Sense').
"The fundamental question, therefore, is are we to stand by & see the natural world, the cow & other creatures remade into some profane image of industrial efficiency & productivity, or are we to become creative, conscious participants in the natural expression & fulfillment of life on this planet in all its beauty, harmony & diversity? The choice is ours & it is our collective will that determines the future of humanity & the fate of the Earth." (Dr. M. Fox, D.Sc., Ph.D., B.Vet.Med., MRCVS, Vice Pres Humane Society (US), N.A. Review, Mr/90).
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