Three commentaries raise a number of issues concerning current developments in biotechnology research and engineering. We hope these pieces will provoke ongoing discussion of how we as progressive people should respond to these events.
Tag - genetic engineering
The nine sessions of the conference were each devoted to one topic. Following the format of the conference, the two volumes are divided into nine sections, each of which consists of short formal papers, responses to those papers and discussions. The first volume, Birth Control and Controlling Birth, covers the...
Recent breakthroughs in the field of genetics have improved greatly our understanding of how genes carry information from one generation to the next, and how they specify the development and functions of all organisms. Associated with this new knowledge are powerful new technologies which allow the linking of genes...
This essay is reproduced here as it appeared in the print edition of the original Science for the People magazine. These web-formatted archives are preserved complete with typographical errors and available for reference and educational and activist use. Scanned PDFs of the back issues can be browsed by headline at...
This essay is reproduced here as it appeared in the print edition of the original Science for the People magazine. These web-formatted archives are preserved complete with typographical errors and available for reference and educational and activist use. Scanned PDFs of the back issues can be browsed by headline at...
I have been doing research in bacterial genetics for the last 12 years at Harvard Medical School and I am a member of Science for the People. Over the last couple of years, we have been discussing in our laboratory how the recombinant DNA technique could make certain of our experiments much easier to do. However, as a...
The psychological and behavioral development of those with the extra Y chromosome (1 in 1000) is followed by a group of psychiatrists, to see if the children develop "antisocial" behavior. The study came to the attention of the Genetic Engineering Group (GEG) of Science for the People. We were opposed to this kind of...
The group is still in the process of defining its goals, but our overall position may be summarized: (1) Scientific progress does not equal human progress and technology is not a goal in itself. (2) Scientists cannot be trusted to regulate their own activities; they should account for the consequences of their work...
SESPA speakers pointed out that politically and economically the green revolution represents a capitalist incursion into Third World markets as well as an attempt to secure the Third world politically for the West. We then attempted to show how the imperialist goal of the funding organizations created great strictures...
The nightmare of genetic engineering and test-tube babies and other spectres of the misuse of science stimulated the British Society for Social Responsibility in Science (BSSRS) to call a meeting in London in late November of 1970. "The Social Impact of Modern Biology" summed up in the meeting title myriad concerns...