From a1a59ef1c40c2f9f305a43359539318e6f0b1f5e Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Holden Rohrer Date: Fri, 25 Sep 2020 00:53:52 -0400 Subject: blog post 3 --- markley/blog/03_moreau | 76 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 76 insertions(+) create mode 100644 markley/blog/03_moreau (limited to 'markley') diff --git a/markley/blog/03_moreau b/markley/blog/03_moreau new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4d9a290 --- /dev/null +++ b/markley/blog/03_moreau @@ -0,0 +1,76 @@ +# Gene Drives and Vivisectors + +Genetic engineering is one of the most popular research fronts in modern +medicine and biology. +It's in its infancy, with preliminary studies struggling to even select +or splice the right genes. +But previous genome work, a widening availability of the tools used to +genetically modify organisms, and breakthroughs with CRISPR mean that, +although it is reasonably safe (ethically speaking) now, the field's +semi-hypothetical ethics questions will become very real very soon. + +Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are controversial in public +opinion, and carry much of the same rhetorical argument as vivisection. +Scientists, for the most part, "side" with genetically modified +organisms, noting them as mostly safe for small modifications, but fears +about large-scale intervention by "Big Agra" (Monsanto and companies +like it) and fears about excessive Western influence on GMO standards +have degraded the image of these technological improvements. +Just like with vivisection, fears about the potential of the technology +run rampant. +These are typically unsupported by reality, but like Dr. Moreau's +beastfolk, they capture public imagination. +The ideas that large corporations want to kill the people and that +vivisectors really want to cut up humans block progress. + +[IMAGE: A shrew holding up a sign with "Give Monsanto a Death Blow" +written on it. CAPTION: This is part 12 of a 15 part series advocating +exclusively against Monsanto, demonstrating the great public animus +https://live.staticflickr.com/4110/5038913099_b5f589c91f_b.jpg] + +[IMAGE: A comic about "kill genes" from ALTHEADLINES. CAPTION: The +conspiracy of large corporations has depicted GMOs as a weapon of the +plutocracy. SRC: https://live.staticflickr.com/8023/7538325182_b4534f5761.jpg] + +Progress is poorly defined, but scientists use it as a motivator +regardless. +The "reckless expert scientist" places faith in the power of experiment, +The New York Times, in its article about gene drives---one +of the more promising and more alarming gene technologies---discusses +this divide between the reckless expert scientist and the fretful +uneducated public. +Dr. Moreau plays the character of the reckless expert scientist, having +been thrown out of society yet still pursuing mythical progress. +Gene drives allow geneticists to insert genetically modified copies of +an organism (mosquitoes for example) into a population and rapidly +spread that gene across the population. +Scientists and public health experts want to stop malaria by genetically +modifying mosquitoes and releasing them into the West African wild. +But fears about using this to sneak in harmful gene drives, "colonial +medicine," and wide ecological failure abound, paralleling fears about +vivisectors and even dissectors. +Their practitioners had some valid use cases for vivisections, and +despite poor minimization of harm, made scientific breakthroughs similar +in impact to erasure of malaria. + +Rioting and unease about vivisection was much louder and direct than +gene modification protests can likely become because gene modification +is invisible, but new science remains poignant. +Fears about gene modification transferring to humans largely correspond +to fears about vivisection transferring to humans, although the line in +the sand may be ultimately drawn differently. +And the way that scientists shrug off risk and harm in the pursuit of +experimental truth is equally frightening to a general public despite +ethical regulations. + +Sources: +- The Island of Dr Moreau +- https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/08/magazine/gene-drive-mosquitoes.html +- "Say NO! to monsanto! Pt. 13" by adriansalamandre is licensed with CC + BY-NC 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit + https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/ +- "GMO Kill Gene" by altheadlines is licensed with CC BY-ND 2.0. To view + a copy of this license, visit + https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/ +- Images found by search.creativecommons.org +NOT USED: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:CRISPR -- cgit