Philadelphia Daily News, October 29, 1997
Animals R Us? Welcome to a nightmare
When Mary Shelley wrote "Frankenstein" in 1818, it was good for a laugh -- or a blood-curdling scream -- because the idea of stitching together sundry parts of human bodies was ridiculous science fiction. That was the 19th century.
In the 20th century, human-to-human transplants of organs -- eyes, kidneys, livers, even hearts -- is accepted scientific fact.
Standing on our tiptoes and peeking over the fence into the 21st century,
there's a view that science, rarely content to leave well-enough alone,
is speeding toward what might be a biological
epidemic.
Take the case of using animal organs in transplants.
This procedure is "fraught with some of the greatest danger we can imagine from the human point of view," according to Andrew Kimbrell, a Washington lawyer for the International Center for Technological Assessment, speaking yesterday before a conference of the American Humane Association at the Adam's Mark.
"We are discovering an entire new generation of viruses and prions, these are pathogenetic, these are disease-causing agents in animals that are switching over to humankind," he said, pointing to the HIV virus as one that began in monkeys, but now afflicts mankind.
"We have just discovered there are numerous pig viruses that do, in fact, infect human cells in culture. We know, of course, there are a huge number of cow prions and viruses that are now affecting humans through the mad cow disease problem," he said. Even as we learn this, science continues to march down the path toward transplants from animals, he said.
"If you want to look at a nightmare scenario for human disease, there you have it," Kimbrell said.
There happens to be a much better source of transplant organs than those from animals -- human donors. As a society, we have failed to educate people to sign donor cards. (Since you asked, yes, my driver's license identifies me as a donor.) It's easier to turn our eyes to the animal world, despite the dangers.
In recent weeks we've read -- shades of Dr. Frankenstein -- of a headless tadpole, followed by talk that this "breakthrough" eventually could lead to the laboratory creation of a headless human body (can we use the words "human being" in this case?) that could be used as a source for transplant organs.
You don't have to be a theologian or an ethicist for such scenarios to give you -- and I go to my best scientific lingo here -- the screaming meemies.
Right now, because of the genetic similarities between many primates and man, some scientists are noodling with the idea of "genetic engineering only a small number of genes between the two species to create the perfect research subjects. Hum-apes, if you will, who you could then clone to be research subjects," said Kimbrell.
In other words, make the apes even more like humans.
And then experiment on them.
More screaming meemies.
Scientists are busy splicing together human and animal genes that could never meet in the natural world, and something makes me think there's a good reason for the wall between the species.
We're involved in a "second genesis, if you will," Kimbrell said.
Man creating a second genesis.
What frightens me most is the thought that the guy in the lab coat gleefully splicing together genes is the same guy whose home VCR is constantly blinking "12:00."
In private industry, Kimbrell told me in a post-conference chat, "We're looking at mixing and matching any number of human genes to animals. The sky's the limit. You're looking at cows, pigs, three or four times their size, you're looking at mixing and matching traits."
Nor are they stopping at the door to the human kingdom.
First, scientists devised a technique to induce animals to produce valuable pharmaceuticals through their mammary glands.
Next, they said to themselves, "Hey! If it works on animals, why not people, too?"
Use human beings as production cows for pharmaceuticals?
This is a joke, right?
Kimbrell said two such patents have been filed in Europe.
The U.S. doesn't permit patents on humans.
Yet.
dan@southeast.net
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