Don't believe the latest "breakthrough" claim
Genetic experiments in nonhuman animals - glow-in-the-dark marmoset monkeys, mice bred with a human speech gene - are all over the news and represent a huge step backwards, both scientifically and ethically. The implications of this research are frightening: designer babies, human-animal hybrids, tremendous animal suffering. No policies are in place to guide these questionable practices.
In Japan, experimenters have announced transmission of genetic modification in marmoset monkeys to their offspring. You can find an abstract of the article here, but you’ll need a registration and log-in info to read the full article at Nature’s website. While many experimenters hail this as a breakthrough just as many did in 2001, when U.S. experimenter Gerald Schatten implanted jellyfish genes into a rhesus monkey bioethicists are questioning the disturbing possibilities: people built-to-order, eugenics and its horrific history, a lack of regulation, animal suffering. Similar warnings were expressed in response to Schatten’s 2001 experiment.
Meanwhile, 56 experimenters - mostly from Germany but also from France, China, the U.S. and the UK -representing 29 separate institutions have announced the successful insertion of a human speech gene into mice. As the featured article in the journal Cell, the full text is available at http://www.cell.com/fulltext/S0092-8674(09)00378-X
The genetically-manipulated marmoset monkeys appear to be just the latest in a long line of animal “models” initially heralded as “breakthroughs” that later produce no substantive progress against human disease. Instead of manipulating the genes of mice and monkeys, scientists should be utilizing and expanding the amazing technological breakthroughs enabled by the landmark mapping of the human genome to conduct ethical, cutting-edge research that is directly applicable to the human beings the research is supposed to be benefit. The list of modern, non-animal research methods is long and growing, as is the number of experts calling for a move away from the antiquated animal model for ethical, economic and scientific reasons. For a list of these methods and the reasons why animal “models” should be relegated to the dustbin of history, please see http://reallocation.org/
In Defense of Animals, located in San Rafael, Calif., is an international animal protection organization with more than 85,000 members and supporters dedicated to ending the abuse and exploitation of animals by protecting their rights and welfare. IDA's efforts include educational events, cruelty investigations, boycotts, grassroots activism, and hands-on rescue through our sanctuaries in Mississippi, Mumbai, India, and Cameroon, Africa.
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