Potatoes, Animals and Humans

Potatoes, Animals and Humans

I was pleased to read in the New Scientist (17 Oct 1998,
p.13) that a genetically modified potato has been banned.
It was modified to produce extra starch but also included a
gene which produced resistance to the antibiotic, amikacin.
Usually resistance to antibiotics, which is undesirable, is
introduced accidentally in the process of conferring
resistance to other chemicals, such as herbicides.

There are other, even more threatening genetic experiments
taking place. There is a debate going on between those
scientists who consider human germ-line engineering unethical
and those who want to proceed with it. It could be
financed by large drug countries which are difficult to
control by governments, as they can easily transfer
experimental sites to countries with permissive governments.

However what is considered unethical in humans is not
considered unethical where animal experiments are concerned.
Most governments would, I believe, permit germ-line
engineering in animals. Why is this being done? To produce
animals who manufacture chemicals which may treat human
disease (New Scientist, 3 October,1998 p27) gives the
example of a pig genetically engineered to produce human
growth hormone. I am sure there are thousands of such
experiments being done. The animal often has to be
slaughtered because it becomes ill. The illness is produced
by the unnatural gene.

We need not be too sorry for "Dolly" the sheep because she
is healthy. But for every healthy animal, thousands of
mutant, sick animals are born. I have not got any figures
and apologise for this, as I like to be very sure of my
facts. However the New Scientist reports that in farm
animals, for every 10,000 eggs injected with foreign genetic
material, only about three make it to adulthood (ibid, p.27)

The mainstream ethical debate concerns whether these methods
should eventually be used on humans. But I believe the
debate should start before this, before proceeding to do the
research on animals. This is not normal animal breeding.
It will alter the whole nature of the animal world