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Scientists Manufacturing GMO Super Babies; Labs Developing Rice With Human Genes
by Monica Davis
In the world of reproductive science, the human embryo has become just another commercial product. It is dissected, diced, spliced and manipulated just like any other assembly line product. Essentially, the human genome has become just another commercialized product.
Scientists put fish genes in tomatoes and strawberries. They install human liver genes in rice to supposedly create drugs. Supposedly the “liver rice” isn’t for human consumption, but it is grown outdoors and who knows what other biological elements it could combine with. We are now in an era where human, fish, plant and animal genes are manipulated to create drugs and disease/weather resistent crops.
Unfortunately, we don’t know whether these genetically modified organisms (GMO) are stable. In the case of the “liver rice”, several companies, including Anheuser-Busch, sued. Media sources say the company threatened to boycott Missouri rice if the GMO human gene rice was planted in the state. Learn more
In terms of new technologies for human reproduction, Jose Van Dijeck’s book, Manufacturing Babies and Public Consent: Debating the New Reproductive Technologies notes the stakeholders in reproductive technology continue to debate the morality and public safety issues in human reproduction and gene manipulation.
In the public debate on new reproductive technologies, many voices have been heard: medical scientists hailing the new technologies as an unprecedented advance; feminists raising apprehensions about the way in which these technologies might rob a woman of her reproductive autonomy and bodily integrity; and ethicists, religious groups, and politicians expressing concerns about the social and moral implications of the new technologies. Mapping out the public debate in the three discourses which play the most significant role in the distribution of public meanings—science, journalism and fiction—Jos Van Dyck here traces the ways in which this public consent has been manufactured. This book examines important questions about the relationship between science, technology and popular culture.
In many cases, scientists are modifying human embryos to “improve” the species, allegedly to get rid of diseases by replacing “defective” genes with “normal” ones.
According to the Chicago Tribune, these genetically-modified (GM) embryos are not yet intended to actually produce real, living children — although it is only a matter of time before this nightmare becomes a reality (remember the movie Gattaca?) — but they will be used in the present to investigate how babies of the future might avoid certain inherited diseases. By combining the genes of one man with those of two women, OHSU researchers claim they have devised a way to effectively replace “defective” genes with normal ones.
There are two types of genes contained in cells — those found inside the nucleus of cells, which influence visible traits such as eye color and height, and those found outside the nucleus in energy-generating mitochondria, which do not influence visible traits, and are only passed along by the mother rather than the father. It is these exterior genes that OHSU scientists have learned to alter, reprogram, and literally block from being passed down from mother to child, which they claim could one day unveil ways by which inherited diseases might be avoided………….……readmorehere
Dr. Frankenstein lives–and the real life one is a lot more dangerous than the fictitious character–particularly because billions of dollars are at stake. According to the United States Department of Agriculture:
A world trade model was used to project the economic consequences of Asia and the United States implementing biotechnology to adopt cost-reducing genetically modified rice. The model considered the potential impacts of insect-, drought-, and herbicide-resistant genetically modified rice technologies. Projected total benefits from these three technologies was around $2 billion per year, but varied regionally; Asian countries benefited from genetically modified rice, while the United States experienced a small net loss. READMOREHERE
