COVER -> RECOMMENDED DAILY REQUIREMENT
GENETICS MUST BENEFIT HUMANITY - There have been several types of descriptions that followed the Human Genome Project's revelation, that 90% of the three billion "letters" of human genetic code have been deciphered. "The beginning of the end", "the end of the beginning" and comparisons with inventing the wheel and man walking on the moon have all been stated to show everyone how important it could be.
Actually, man walking on the moon was an extremely expensive political project that's direct improvement on people's lives has not yet justified the money and risks spent. It was pleasing therefore to read that 5% of all the Project's funding was spent on ethics, and only time will tell how well spent that was.
 |
Capitalists will say whoever did the work. This could be confusing as 16 research institutes in 6 different countries participated in it. However, at the helm are two bitter enemies, American Dr. Craig Venter, President of his company, Celera Genomics, and Englishman Dr. John Sulston, director of the publicly financed Sanger Centre. It was Dr. Venter who announced the first full sequence of a free living organism in 1996, and after he split with Dr. Sulston in 1991, filed a patent application on more than 300 genes. It was Dr. Sulston who announced the first complete sequence of a human chromosome. Although largely thanks to British Prime Minister Tony Blair and US President Bill Clinton, the two forged a brief reconciliation, everyone expects the two to be competing for rights to genetic information before long.
Do we really want what would be a living God exerting power over the fabric of human life in the same way that Bill Gates controls Microsoft and the Internet? In the wrong hands, particularly under a non-regulated market, nothing could stop society positively discriminating against people on the grounds of race, gender or disability, to fit the new genetic world. According to Dr. Sulston, "our basic information, our 'software', should be free and open for everyone to play with, to compete with, to try and make products from. I do not believe it should be under the control of one person. Venter is morally wrong. Celera Genomics wants to establish a monopoly on the human sequence."
The reaction to the recent groundbreaking story shows what a selfish lot we all are. When the genetically modified (GM) crops issues started, and the main benefits were for the Third World, people supported logistic and moral objections to GM technology. Now, when the benefits of biotechnology are more likely to be for the West as hereditary illness is not at the forefront of the developing world's problems, similar objections seemed to be muted. Does this mean that we will all be prepared to pay money for potential improvements that will only affect ourselves and people close to us? If so, a privatised genetics industry would follow, and the growth of the gap between the haves and have-nots would be unstoppable.
Cast your vote in our newest Opinion Poll:
RDR RECOMMENDED SITE OF THE DAY: Hear Ralph Nader, who we have endorsed, in his own words during a NewsHour with Jim Lehrer interview last week. (RealAudio required.) The text of the interview is also at this link. You're welcome!
