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T
HE ANXIOUS
coup)e
sat down timidly in
front of a steel desk.
A medica! research–
er, al ready seated a nd
hardly aware of their
presence, peered intently
at a sheaf of paper s
spread before her.
Is
Science
key to the living kingdom has
been put into our hands"
(The
Ultimate Experiment- Man–
made Evolution,
page 2).
Barely a decade old, the
modern genetic industry
worldwide has assembled both
scholarly research teams and
the hard cash needed for prop–
er funding.
Off
the Track?
"Hmm, yes, Mr. Han–
cock, we did find sorne evi–
dence of genetic damage
that must have been trans–
mitted by your mother–
you did say that she
admitted to extensive
recreational drug use
during the 1960s?"
The husband swal–
lowed hard and nod–
ded weakly. 1n a
choked voice he stam-
In the United States alone,
more than 100 fledgling gene–
splicing companies and entre–
preneurs have boldly waded
into the microscopic world of
biotechnology, or "biotech," as
it has come to be known. T he
top five companies em–
ploy more than 1,700
researchers, and eager
investors have plowed
hundreds of millions
into public holdings,
hoping to cash in on
mered: "Ah, does this
mean that we won't be able to
have
normal
children?"
1nstantly the researcher
looked up, smoothed her crum–
pled lab garb and in a surprised
and almost indignant voice
said: "Of course you'll be able
to have genetically normal chil–
dren, Mr. Hancock. Jt's a very
simple procedure to repair the
inherited gene damage."
Only Science Fic ti on?
The above dialogue is fiction.
But if today's genetic research
and development continues at
the present frenzied pace, it
may not be fiction for long.
"Through a genetic window,
we can know with uncanny,
sometimes disturbing accuracy
the most intimate facts of the
legacy brought by our spouse's
background and the quality of
life we may expect for our chil–
dren," asserts Dr. Marc Lappe,
author of
Genetic Politics
-
The Limits of Bio/ogical Con–
trol.
Nicholas Wade, a senior
writer for
Science
magazin~,
claims that gene-splicing has
put "the whole gene pool of the
planet ... at our disposal. The
J une
1984
by
Michael A. Snyder
As science unravels the genetic
code, is biotech about to spawn a
malevolent biological age?
Using electronically aided equipment, research–
er inserts human gene into mouse embryo.
the "tiny" revolution.
Biotech research is
not limited to the United
States either. Prívate industrial
and governmental laboratories
in Japan, the United Kingdom,
Switzerland, West Germany
and France have joined the
race to domínate the new
industry.
Thus far, the investment has
paid off handsomely.
To the general public, the
now-accepted term
biotech
may be fuzzily associated with
test-tube babies. But biotech is
far more than the now well–
known
in vitro
fertilization,
where a human or animal egg
is removed from an ovary, fer–
tilized with sperm in a labora–
tory culture dish, and subse–
quently reinserted in the moth–
er's uterus.
Indeed, test-tube babies rep–
resent but the small tip of an
enormous scientific iceberg.
Amazing results have been
culled from laboratories world–
wide in an equally amazingly
short time. Fueled by an
intense competitive drive that
rivals the scope of the World
War 11 nuclear Manhattan
Project, researchers now as–
semble man-designed vaccines
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