quotations about genetic engineering
Modern genetics is on the verge of some truly fantastic ways of "improving" the human race, but let me emphasize at the onset that this technical know-how does not automatically bring with it the criteria for its use. This, I believe, is the most important fact that scientists and citizens alike must keep in mind as our technology progresses. It may be true that man has tremendous genetic potential for significant improvement, but in what direction? It is tempting to point to the great success animal breeders have had in "improving" their stocks and say that the same can be done in man, but we must remember that animal breeding was successful only because the breeders had a Platonic "ideal" and selected ruthlessly for uniformity to achieve it. It seems certain that the improvement of man does not lie in some simple uniform ideal analogous to the ideal dairy cow with her "opulent udder."
JAMES J. NAGLE
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, December 1971
The devil is already at the door, cleverly disguised as an engineer.
JEREMY RIFKIN
attributed, Improving Nature: The Science and Ethics of Genetic Engineering
Can genetic engineers restore a rapid worldwide rise in grainland productivity? This prospect is not promising simply because plant breeders using traditional techniques have largely exploited the genetic potential for increasing the share of photosynthate that goes into seed. Once this is pushed close to its limit, the remaining options tend to be relatively small, clustering around efforts to raise the plant's tolerance of various stresses, such as drought or soil salinity. One major option left to scientists is to increase the efficiency of the process of photosynthesis itself--something that has thus far remained beyond their reach.
LESTER R. BROWN
Outgrowing the Earth
It is convenient to imagine the set of all possible animals as arrayed in a multidimensional genetic landscape. Distance in this landscape means genetic distance, the number of genetic changes that would have to be made in order to transform one animal into another. It is not obvious how one would actually compute the genetic distance between any two animals (because not all animals have the same number of genetic loci); but again the argument does not rely upon precision, and it is intuitively obvious what it means, for instance, to say that the genetic distance between a rat and a hedgehog is larger than the genetic distance between a rat and a mouse. All that we are doing here is to place as well, in the same multidimensional system of axes, the very much larger set of animals that have never existed. We are including those that could never have survived even if they had come into existence, as well as those that might have survived if they had existed but as a matter of fact never came into existence.
RICHARD DAWKINS
A Devil's Chaplain: Reflections on Hope, Lies, Science, and Love
We've got ninety-nine per cent the same genes as any other person. We've got ninety per cent the same as a chimpanzee. We've got thirty percent the same as a lettuce. Does that cheer you up at all? I love about the lettuce. It makes me feel I belong.
CARYL CHURCHILL
A Number
They increasingly view life from the vantage point of the chemical composition at the genetic level. From this reductionist perspective, life is merely the aggregate representation of the chemicals that give rise to it and therefore they see no ethical problem whatsoever in transferring one, five or a hundred genes from one species into the hereditary blueprint of another species. For they truly believe that they are only transferring chemicals coded in the genes and not anything unique to a specific animal. By this kind of reasoning all of life becomes desacralized. All of life becomes reduced to a chemical level and becomes available for manipulation.
JEREMY RIFKIN
Declaration of a Heretic
Once a little bit of the genetic material is safely stored in the bioprospecting company's gene bank, they can propagate or clone it, or develop a synthetic chemical substitute to meet all of their commercial production needs. The local community then has no control over future uses of its genetic and intellectual resources, and even the best compensation deals yield a mere fraction of the monetary value that a successful product can bring to the commercial interprise.
KRISTIN DAWKINS
Gene Wars: The Politics of Biotechnology
The advance of genetic engineering makes it quite conceivable that we will begin to design our own evolutionary progress.
ISAAC ASIMOV
The Beginning and the End
The genetic engineers are right that we can save time and trouble by climbing on the back of millions of years of R & D that Darwinian natural selection has put into developing biological antifreeze (or whatever we are seeking). But the doomsayers would also have a point if they softened their stance from emotional gut reaction to a rational plea for rigorous safety testing. No reputable scientist would oppose such a plea. It is rightly routine for all new products, not just genetically engineered ones.
RICHARD DAWKINS
A Devil's Chaplain: Reflections on Hope, Lies, Science, and Love
I predict we will abolish suffering throughout the living world. Our descendants will be animated by gradients of genetically pre-programmed well-being that are orders of magnitude richer than today's peak experiences.
DAVID PEARCE
The Hedonistic Imperative
Put briefly, genetic engineering is a "cut, paste, and copy" operation.
SUSAN ALDRIDGE
The Thread of Life: The Story of Genes and Genetic Engineering
I know it's a long shot and people would say it's "too absurd" ... but I'm doing this with hopes of making a Mickey Mouse some day.
ARIKUNI UCHIMURA
attributed, "Scientists breed a mouse that sings", December 21, 2010
It has been claimed that genetic engineering is like nuclear science, as both confer a power on humans for which they are psychologically and morally unprepared.
D. R. J. MACER
Shaping Genes: Ethics, Law and Science of Using Genetic Technology in Medicine and Agriculture
I suspect any worries about genetic engineering may be unnecessary. Genetic mutations have always happened naturally, anyway.
JAMES LOVELOCK
attributed, It's in Your DNA
With genetic engineering, we will be able to increase the complexity of our DNA, and improve the human race. But it will be a slow process, because one will have to wait about 18 years to see the effect of changes to the genetic code.
STEPHEN HAWKING
attributed, Inside the Mind of Stephen Hawking: Quotes from a Scientific Genius
Genetic engineering is just too monocultural, too impoverished, too nonsustainable to be our bet for feeding the hungry.
BILL LAMBRECHT
Dinner at the Ne Gene Café
The molecular tools available allow the breeder cum genetic engineer to specifically choose the genes and splice them with the elements that will control in which tissue, under which circumstances, and how much a gene will be expressed. This is done without introducing all the extraneous genetic baggage brought by crossing with the related species. Genetic engineering is like getting a spouse without in-laws, whereas breeding is like getting a spouse with a whole village.
JONATHAN GRESSEL
Genetic Glass Ceilings: Transgenics for Crop Biodiversity
To see what variations of the human race are possible, simply look at the household dog. Although there are thousands of breeds of dogs, all originally descended from Canis lupus, the gray wolf, which was domesticated roughly 10,000 years ago at the end of the last Ice Age. Because of selective breeding by their human masters, dogs today come in a bewildering variety of sizes and shapes. Body shape, temperament, color, and abilities have all been radically altered by selective breeding. Since dogs age roughly seven times faster than humans, we can estimate that about 1,000 generations of dogs have existed since they separated from wolves. If we apply this to humans, then systematic breeding of humans might split the human race into thousands of breeds in only 70,000 years although they would be of the same species. With genetic engineering, this process could conceivably be vastly accelerated, to a single generation.
MICHIO KAKU
Physics of the Future
Renegade scientists and totalitarian loonies are not the folks most likely to abuse genetic engineering. You and I are--not because we are bad but because we want to do good. In a world dominated by competition, parents understandably want to give their kids every advantage. ... The most likely way for eugenics to enter into our lives is through the front door as nervous parents ... will fall over one another to be first to give Junior a better set of genes.
ARTHUR L. CAPLAN
"What Should the Rules Be?", Time Magazine, January 22, 2001
And so the race to genetically engineer everything and be first to the patent office is on.
KRISTIN DAWKINS
Gene Wars: The Politics of Biotechnology