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Human-Animal Chimeras? - Genetic Crossroads #36 (14/1/2004)

Human-Animal Chimeras? - Genetic Crossroads #36

Below is Genetic Crossroads #36 - the highly informative newsletter of the Center for Genetics and Society.

For GM Watch's guide to rersources on the human genetics issue (websites/books/articles/newsletters, including how to subscribe to Genetic Crossroads): http://www.lobbywatch.org/p1temp.asp?pid=8&page=1

For an introductory essay on human genetics:
http://www.lobbywatch.org/p2temp2.asp?aid=52&page=1&op=1

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Genetic Crossroads #36
The Newsletter of the Center for Genetics and Society, January 13, 2004

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I. NOTABLE QUOTE: James Watson on directing human evolution

II. FEATURES
. Top Ten Developments of 2003
. Human-Animal Chimeras?

III. RESOURCES
. Controversial PBS series with James Watson
. Coverage of transhumanism
. Race, Gender and Justice in the Gene Age resource packet . and more

IV. LEGISLATIVE BEAT
. South Korea, France, Israel, Italy, and New Jersey legislation
. California Fish and Game Commission on GM pet fish

V. TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS
. White-tailed deer clone
. Cloned human embryo claimed
. Primitive sperm cells from stem cells

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I. NOTABLE QUOTE: JAMES WATSON

"I think it's irresponsible not to try and direct the evolution to produce a human being who will be an asset to the world."
- James D. Watson, in an upcoming PBS documentary

II. FEATURE: TOP TEN DEVELOPMENTS OF 2003

In this first issue of Genetic Crossroads for 2004, we begin with the "Top Ten of 2003." These are our choices, not in any order, of last year's key developments-some encouraging, some sobering-for the ongoing efforts to bring human genetic and reproductive technologies under responsible social control.

1. James Watson's halo askew at 50th anniversary of DNA discovery

Spring 2003 marked a half-century since the determination of the double-helix structure of DNA, as well as the publication of a new book by James Watson timed to take advantage of the predictable celebrations. Media coverage of these events was overwhelmingly adulatory, but two important articles took a sharper look at the man whose fame rests on the molecule, and the industry and ideology it has spawned.

Susan Lindee, "Watson's World," Science

Ralph Brave, "James Watson Wants to Build a Better Human," Alternet

2. Libertarian bioethicists advocate embryo screening for trait selection

Several bioethicists close to the assisted reproduction industry pressed the case last year for expanding the uses of the embryo screening technique known as preimplantation genetic diagnosis, or PGD. Introduced less than 15 years ago as a way to prevent the births of children with lethal or gravely serious disorders, PGD is being used and promoted for conditions that are less and less serious. Some US fertility clinics now offer PGD for sex selection for "family balancing." One bioethicist urges that if a "gay gene" is found, parents be allowed to choose the sexual orientation of their children. Bioethicist Julian Savulescu has taken to baiting disability rights advocates, many of whom are deeply wary of PGD, with titles such as "Why we should allow people deliberately to create disabled children."

See Savulescu's articles "Deaf Lesbians, `designer disability,' and the future of medicine" and "Sex selection: the case for."

John Robertson, "Extending preimplantation genetic diagnosis: the ethical debate," Human Reproduction (abstract)

Edgar Dahl, "Should parents be allowed to use preimplantation genetic diagnosis to choose the sexual orientation of their children?" Human Reproduction (abstract)

3. US governors apologize for eugenic sterilizations

Efforts to uncover and acknowledge the history of involuntary eugenic sterilizations in the United States gathered steam in 2003. Between the early 1900s and the 1970s, thirty-three states had laws that allowed medical experts to sterilize about 60,000 people who were deemed "unfit to reproduce"-many of them poor women of color, individuals considered "feeble-minded," and pregnant women who were unmarried. In March, California became the fifth state to apologize for its eugenic sterilization program, joining Virginia, Oregon, and North and South Carolina.

"Against Their Will: North Carolina's Sterilization Program," an extraordinary five-part special report in the Winston-Salem Journal

Tony Platt, "The Frightening Agenda of the American Eugenics Movement"

Howard Markel, "The Ghost of Medical Atrocities: What's Next, After the Unveiling?," New York Times

Paul A. Lombardo, "Taking Eugenics Seriously: Three Generations Of ??? Are Enough?," Florida State University Law Review

4. The Raelian cloning hoax

2003 began with the world media focused on the announcement that an extraterrestrial-friendly cult had successfully cloned a child. The Raelians never produced a baby, confirming widespread suspicions that the claim amounted to a brilliant PR coup. Many editorials and op-eds used the occasion to explore the social and policy implications of human cloning.