different views

The ultimate therapy

Author/s: Jeremy Rifkin
Issue: May-June, 1998(TIKKUN)

COMMERCIAL EUGENICS ON THE EVE OF THE BIOTECH CENTURY

While the twentieth century was shaped largely by the spectacular breakthroughs in the fields of physics and chemistry, the twenty-first century will belong to the biological sciences. Scientists around the world are quickly deciphering the genetic code of life, unlocking the mystery of millions of years of biological evolution on Earth. Global life science companies, in turn, are beginning to exploit the new advances in biology in a myriad of ways, laying the economic framework for the coming Biotech Century.

Genes are the raw resource of the new economic epoch and are already being used in a variety of business fields - including agriculture, animal husbandry, energy, bioremediation, building and packaging materials, pharmaceuticals, and food and drink - to fashion a bio-industrial world. Nowhere is the new genetic commerce likely to have a bigger impact, however, than in human medicine. For the first time in history, scientific tools are becoming available to manipulate the genetic instructions in human cells. Human gene screening and therapy raise the very real possibility that we might be able to engineer the genetic blueprints of our own species and begin to redirect the future course of our biological evolution on Earth. The new gene splicing techniques will make it potentially possible to transform individuals and future generations into "works of art," continually updating and editing their DNA codes to enhance physical and mental health. Breakthroughs in genetic technology are bringing us to the edge of a new eugenics era with untold consequences for present and future generations and for civilization itself.

In less than seven years, the global life science companies will hold patents on most of the 100,000 genes that make up the human race as well as patents on the cell lines, tissues, and organs of our species, giving them unprecedented power to dictate the terms by which we and future generations will live our lives. The concentration of power in the global pharmaceutical industry has already reached staggering proportions. The world's ten major pharmaceutical companies currently control 47 percent of the $197 billion pharmaceutical market. The implications of a new market-driven eugenics are enormous and far reaching. Indeed, commercial eugenics could become the defining social dynamic of the new century.

FRIENDLY EUGENICS

Over the next ten years, molecular biologists say they will locate specific genes associated with several thousand genetic diseases. In the past, a parent's genetic history provided some clues to genetic inheritance, but there was still no way to know for sure whether specific genetic traits would be passed on. In the future, the guesswork will be increasingly eliminated, posing a moral dilemma for prospective parents. Parents will have at their disposal an increasingly accurate readout of their individual genetic make-ups, and will be able to predict the statistical probability of a specific genetic disorder being passed on to their children as a result of their biological union.

To avoid the emotional anguish of such decisions, some young people are likely to opt for prevention and avoid marrying someone of the wrong "genotype" for fear of passing along serious genetic diseases to their offspring. Already, part of the Orthodox Jewish community in the United States has established a nationwide program to screen all young Jewish men and women for Tay-Sachs disease. Every young Jew is encouraged to take the test. The results are made available in an easily accessible database to allow young eligible men and women to choose their dating partners with genotype in mind.

Some ethicists argue that such programs will become far more commonplace, placing a "genetic stigma" on young people. There's ample precedent for concern. Researchers report that when sickle cell anemia was screened for in Greece, nearly 23 percent of the population was found to have the trait. Fearing stigmatization, many of the carriers concealed their test results, believing that public exposure would seriously jeopardize their marriage prospects.

When researchers at the Johns Hopkins Medical Center recently discovered a genetic alteration in one out of every six Jews of Eastern European ancestry that doubles their risk of getting colon cancer, many in the Jewish community began to express their concern that the Jewish population might be singled out and made the object of discrimination. The news of the "Jewish" cancer gene came on top of other discoveries linking breast and ovarian cancer, cystic fibrosis, Tay-Sachs, Gauchers, and Canavan's disease to Jewish blood lines. Of course, scientists point out that other groups are likely to have just as many genetic links to specific diseases, but that the Jewish population has received the most attention to date because "they constitute a well defined, easily identifiable and closely related community - exactly the kind that allows geneticists to start identifying disease-causing genes." Still, the explanations of the researchers were not enough to calm an anxious Jewish community who began to vent their feelings publicly. Amy Rutkin, the director of American affairs for Hadassah, the nation's largest Jewish membership organization, reported that in the aftermath of the colon cancer discovery, the organization has been "receiving phone calls indicating a certain amount of fear and confusion." Rutkin said that "people are asking, is too much research focused on the Jewish community and are we at risk of stigmatization?"

Health professionals worry about genetic stigmatization and especially the prospect of selecting potential mates based on genotyping, but argue that it is still less onerous than selective abortion or sentencing a newborn to premature death or a life of chronic or debilitating illness. Not surprising, there is increasing talk of government mandated genetic testing of couples seeking marriage licenses. Even without a government requirement, it's likely that a growing number of potential marriage partners will want their future partner screened before committing themselves to a life-long relationship.

While genetic screening is already here, human genetic engineering - gene therapy - is just around the corner. Genetic manipulation is of two kinds. In somatic therapy, intervention takes place only within non-sex (somatic) cells and the genetic changes do not transfer into the offspring. In germ line therapy, genetic changes are made in the sperm, egg or embryonic cells, and are passed along to future generations. Somatic gene surgery has been carried out in limited human clinical trials for more than seven years. Germ line experiments have been successfully carried out on mammals for more than a decade and researchers expect the first human trials to be conducted within the next several years.

Despite years of favorable media reports on various somatic gene therapy experiments and the high expectations voiced by the medical establishment and the biotech industry, the results have, thus far, been so disappointing that the NIH itself was recently forced to acknowledge the fact and issue a sober warning to scientists conducting the experiments to stop making promises that cannot be kept. In an extensive survey of all 106 clinical trials of experimental gene therapies conducted over the past five years involving more than 597 patients, a panel of experts convened by the NIH reported that "clinical efficacy has not been definitively demonstrated at this time in any gene therapy protocol, despite anecdotal claims of successful therapy." Even Dr. Leroy B. Walters, a philosophy professor at Georgetown University and the chairperson of the NIH oversight committee that reviewed and approved all of the clinical trials, remarked in a moment of candor that he and the committee had not seen "any solid results yet" after years of experiments. Still, many of the staunchest supporters of the new gene therapies remain convinced that the techniques will bear fruit as methodologies and procedures are honed and new knowledge of the workings of the genes become more available to researchers and clinicians.