This is Alba, the GFP bunny, created
by artist Eduardo Kac. This is a real bunny, created as art, and created
as Kac says, as a part of social life. You can read about Kac's views about
transgenic art at http://www.ekac.org/gfpbunny.htmlIDST 215: Social Implications of Biotechnology Professor Marion Field Fass, Beloit College Fall 2000 |
DON'T BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOU READ-
Check your source's sources- look for biases- and make sure that you analyze the kinds of information that is presented.
BIOMEDICAL ETHICS:
For Ethics- check out the Kennedy Institute of Bioethics Journal, available at Beloit College on the library internet connection from Project Muse.
University of Pennsylvania Center for Bioethics looks at the ethical side of gene therapy and medical issues.
University of Pennsylvania Institute for Human Gene Therapy has an excellent web site with extensive news and issue links. Penn is especially concerned about these issues after last year's death of Jesse Gelsinger, an 18 year old involved in a gene therapy trial at the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center.
"CARBON COPY" a fictional story by Richard Kadrey, originally published in Wired, March 1998.
This is Alba, the GFP bunny, created
by artist Eduardo Kac. This is a real bunny, created as art, and created
as Kac says, as a part of social life. You can read about Kac's views about
transgenic art at http://www.ekac.org/gfpbunny.html
Web Sites Opposing the new techno-eugenics:
Web Sites Supporting the new techno-eugenics:
INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVES:
Center for Biotechnology Information is an industry sponsored group with good links and a clear pro biotech bias. It has a great list of links that run from industry sites to university centers and political approaches.
Read about these issues from the vantage of industry as well
"Monsanto- A Life Sciences Company- Food Health and Hope" has great information on Biotechnology including on line lectures from the president.
ACADEMIC DISCUSSIONS ON PLANT BIOTECH:
The journal Conservation Ecology, June 2000 has a SPECIAL FEATURE ON THE PROMISES AND RISKS OF GENETICALLY MODIFIED CROPS with papers and commentaries. http://www.consecol.org/Journal/vol4/iss1/index.html
Leading scientists debate merits of Biotechnology at AgBioForum, 1999. Altieri and Rosset are with Food First. McGloughlin is at UC-Davis. AgBioForum publishes articles which enhance the on-going dialogue on the economics and management of agricultural biotechnology. The purpose of AgBioForum is to provide unbiased, timely information and new ideas leading to socially responsible and economically efficient decisions in science, public policy and private strategies pertaining to agricultural biotechnology.
ANTI-BIOTECH ACTIVISTS:
Mad Science News from the Brave New World: A page of links to news articles on bioengineered foods, etc from the BioEngineering Network of North America. Definitely anti-biotech in opinion
Food First: Food and Policy Development: another group opposed to genetically engineered crops.
Rachel's Environment and Health Weekly : A well documented resource from the Environmental Research Foundation. They state: Rachel Carson, the famous scientist and writer, published Silent Spring in 1962 , warning that toxic industrial chemicals and pesticides would cause irreparable harm to the environment and to human health. In 1986, we began publishing Rachel's Environment & Health Weekly, which we named in honor of Rachel Carson. Each week, Rachel's Weekly provides timely information on toxic substances and other environmental hazards. The newsletter covers many technical issues, such as the toxicity of dioxin, incinerator emissions, rising cancer rates, and the intricacies of risk assessment, but it is written in plain language that anyone can understand. Much of the information covered in Rachel's Weekly never appears in the mainstream media and can only be found in medical and scientific journals that most people never see. Furthermore, Rachel's Weekly tries to put environmental problems into a political context of money and power, so that people can see how all our problems - and all our local fights -- are connected. To address these "big picture" concerns, we discuss issues such as the influx of money into our elections, the enormous influence of multinational corporations, and other distortions of our democracy.
GLOBAL ISSUES
Globalization and Biotechnology: "A New Map of the World" by Jeffrey Sachs from Harvard, reprinted from The Economist
Science, Technology and Economic Growth: Africa's Biopolicy Agenda in the 21st Century, Delivered by Dr. Calestous Juma, United Nations University, 1999.
CONTROVERSIES in Science
Polio
vaccine and the origin of AIDS Links set up by Brian Martin, a professor
the the University of Wollongong in Australia.
Schistosomiasis treatment gone wrong. A note from ProMED digest, March 12, 2000.HEPATITIS C, SCHISTOSOMIASIS TREATMENT LINKED - EGYPT
From: M. Cosgriff <mcosgriff@hotmail.com>Source: BBC, 9 Mar 2000
Research published in the British medical journal, The Lancet, has revealed that a huge campaign in Egypt, decades ago, to eradicate schistosomiasis [or bilharzia], was the cause of another major health problem, hepatitis C, which is now endemic in the country [and affects up to one fifth of the entire population].
[Schistosomiasis] was Egypt's biggest public health problem, affecting villagers living along the Nile. Now, according to the Health Ministry, the major problem is hepatitis C, which has spread dramatically, in a tragic irony, as a result of the campaign against [schistosomiasis]. The spokesman for the Egyptian Health Ministry, Taha al-Khubbi, said officials first noticed a link between the blood-borne hepatitis C and [schistosomiasis] about 10 years ago.
Now researchers have established the connection; dirty needles. Between the 1950s and 1980s, before other drugs became available, medication for [schistosomiasis] was administered by injection, and the needles were routinely re-used without proper sterilization. [The treatment, called parenteral antischistosomal therapy (PAT), was conducted across Egypt from the 1950s to the 1980s. It entailed giving between 12 and 16 intravenous injections of an antimony salt, tartar emetic, to each patient over a short period, the study said].
Dr al-Khubbi told the BBC that the dangers of diseases like hepatitis were not known at the time. He said the Egyptian Health Ministry introduced disposable needles about 10 years ago, but he said hepatitis was still being transmitted by drug-users, dentists and through razors used in barber shops.
The disease is a major burden on the Egyptian economy. According to Dr. al-Khubbi, each patient costs between $1,000 and $2,000 to treat.
[Clearly the vector of this virus was reused syringes. This is the world's largest (medically-caused) transmission of blood-borne pathogens known to date and probably led to an increase in (at least) both hepatitis C and hepatitis B in the general population. - Mod. CHC]
This site has been developed by Marion Field Fass, Beloit
College, Beloit, WI 53511. Last updated8/10/00/. For more information,
contact me at fassm@beloit.edu.