Dear friends,
You probably hoped it wouldn't come to this, but it has. British scientists are calling for the legislation for a technique for creating babies with altered genes. There is no good medical argument for doing this. There are less than two weeks to persuade the government that the consequences of doing so would be disastrous. If you care about genetic engineering of crops and animals you should care about the threat of GE children.
Although microbes, plants and animals have been genetically engineered, surprisingly for the last 20 years governments around the world have strongly resisted scientists' attenpts to do the same to humans. Now scientists have found a way to cross this line without appearing to do so. Do not be fooled! Although these techniques are not genetic modification, they will result in babies whose genes have been intentionally altered. These genes will be passed down the female line to all their descendents, so this is genetic engineering. Once this crucial ethical line has been crossed it will be impossible to go back, and we will rapidly descend into the future of GM 'designer babies' eugenics that everyone wants to avoid. The only way to avoid that is to insist on the ban on any form of genetic engineering of humans.
Read more here:
http://www.gmwatch.org
