This article is essential reading. Do skip the first few paragraphs of slightly irritating point-scoring about Synods and creationism, but read the summary of the science, from: "What of the science of genetics and its implications?"
For those without time, here are his main conclusions:
1. ‘Genome Farming’
Teams of genome hunters from major commercial companies are very active in many poor countries hunting the gene sequences of indigenous peoples for patent protection as outlined above. International law gives only limited rights to these peoples for the privacy of their genome sequences or for income derived from them. This is exploitation of a quite unwarrantable kind.
2. Insurance Investments
The discussions on Human Genome Privacy between the Association of British Insurers (ABI) and the Government are ongoing. It is clear that between 10 per cent – 15 per cent of our population are genetically disadvantaged with regard to incipient and early disease. Currently life assurance premiums especially involving mortgage lending etc, are based upon actuarial tables to calculate risks.
It seems clear that any publicly available genetic data could create an underclass as far as lifestyles are concerned, especially if the genome sequences could be seen as ‘sequences in utero’. This underclass would effectively be established to the benefit of finance houses and such a scenario has been under discussion between the Government and the ABI. Embryos as young as six weeks gestation will shed foetal cells into a mother’s circulation and such cells can now be harvested and genomically sequenced. This has significant implications for those promoting a eugenically pure society. The use of these techniques and their potential has been discussed by a series of House of Commons Select Committees resulting in some alarming recommendations.
Until recently, Colin was Deputy Chief Scientist, responsible for genetics, at the Department of Health and a Senior Consultant to the World Health Organisation. (Biog. info from CVM.)
