Tobacco Documents Online

• The Arfificial Creofion of Life and What It Means for the Future of the Human Race : Ted Howard and' Jeremy Rif kin of the Peoples Business Commission c

( .~ . F#?``~: ETLJS. THE IBIti1 ~`x^r&AvI4 t;~.t'' ii OF THE GENETICS FIELD ~~Xrrp ~~ ,. ~ . s. try . ~ ~' f ~3 Attending the first National Academy of Sciences :forum on recombinant DNA and genetic engineering, March, 1977, were many of the major scientists doing research in the genetics field. Time and again hihititd during the three-day gaterng, tese scenss a- `.~s;nionished critics for their "paranoia" concerning pos- sible corporate exploitation of this emerging technology. ~At the same time, the proponents argued vociferously that their research was motivated purely by humani- tarian considerations. However, a confidential in-house memorandum pre- pared by a newly formed West Coast corporation tells an entirely different story. The corporation is called Cetus, and its board of directors and advisers-all of whom have a significant financial interest in the firm- reads like a"V"Ws Who" of the leading scientific researchers in the recombinant DNA and genetics field.l If there were ever any doubt about either the "real" motives of some of the top scientists involved in this research or of the incredible commercial profit that could be made off their work, this private report lays them to rest. The Cetus memorandum says that because of recent scientific breakthroughs it has become possible, for the first time, to give real meaning to the term "genetic . ~ 19O wHO SI3~ULD PLAY GOD? . en"ineering:" "The significance of this power cannot bc exaggerated," according to the Cetus .:orporation.` ' The document goes on to discuss the i:nportant break ihrougii in transferrimd genes from one spectes to ^„ another amd contends that it is "difficult to commu= ' „=nicate the-.magnitude of such an accomplishment toa ~: nonscientific audience." As a consequeace; the Cetus report skips over the technical talk and gets right to .; :. the main point. "It is only a matter of time," says ~" Cetus,: "before [the corporations] beain to :-xploit these ~'~'o un- developments cmmercially. A new industry with ~5;,told, potential is about to appear," and Cetus has n; head start on capturing the field . 1 r E _.._.- For starters, says Dr. Ronald Cape, the compa, ~h pro~i esident, "In the next 30 years or so-biolgy"t ~ replace chemistry -in importance in this country:"z ~ b Businessmen like Cape are already predicting that as `: _we run out of oil resources in the next twenty-five- years, new genetically engineered compounds-bacteria, molds, and fungi-will increasingly be used to supply "'the economy with alternatives to oil~derived chemicals for making fertilizers, plastics, wash-and-wear clothes, ~ pesticides, dyes, paints, and tens of thoucands of other ~. products. In fact, they argue that it is only a matter of ; time before the right kind of new living microbes can be developed and substitu:ed- for just' about any chemical presently being used' for industrial purposes. F.xpanding on the incredible commercial potential "." that a monopoly over the field of gonetic engineering by Cetus woula mean, the authors of the report also _ cPaim that ia the bio-medical sciences "this concept [genetic engine.ring] is so truly revolutionary that by the year 200o virtually all the major human diseases tvill regularly succumb to treatment" by genetic pro- cedares. The Cctus people assert that "the pharma- ceutical industry of 3975 will either have changed its entire product orientation by the turn of the century 'yV A or new, more imaginative industry leaders, moving : {•f~

SCIENTISTS AND CORPORATIONS 191 swiftly into the new field now, will have taken over a commanding leadership." Cetus already has a good 4~y idea of where that new commercial leadership will come ,from. "The mission of the Cetus Coraoration is the '`~; exploitation of this accumulated body of knowledge." ~To accomplish this, "Cetus has assembled scientists of t~'Qg,d world renown in developing the newest frontiers of ~ ~~: genetics and large scale sophisticated instrumentation." ;,Q,•• ~i'ho are these renowned scientists7 They include Nobel Prize winner in bacterial genetics Dr. Joshua •Leder- associate professor of inedi- ~s berg; Dr Stanley Cohen . , . ;;~y,4~.• . d the di l l S h f iv i S M , an ca c e oo .~~,~,~~ cme at tan ers ty ord Un acknowledged leader in the new technology of gene a,J.~ manipulation; Arnold Demain, professor of applied °~ microbiologY at MTT; Nobel laureate Donald A. vt Glaser, professor of physics and molecular biology at the University of California at Berkeley, etc., etc. '~+.~~The Cetus memorandum is neither shocking nor atypical, says biologist Jonathan King of MIT, who contends that the motivations of research scientists are ` ~ They [the often more selfserving than humanitarian: r- scientists] are into making a Iiving Take the who . guy resident for Kello g's Corn Flakes and "u` r is a senior vice g p 4~,` 3s trying to make it up to the president. Why does he : ". want to do this? Because he likes corn flakes? No, because he has been brought up all his life to want to .. succeed and to have status, to have prestige and to :: make more monevn or be more nowerful :.. Is science - 192 \VHO SHOULD PLAY GOD? 0 industries and is being used to exploit and oppress , people all over the world and in this country."* . Ethan Signer of MIT's biology department agrees and adds that "the system" encourages scientists to -conceptualize research in commercial terms.° These : new advances in genetic engineering, say -the critics, will not only "advance" the corporations that apply and exploit them, but also the individual scientists whose intellectuall labor is used in the process. = These are heavy charges to leveL Is scientific in,•: quiry influenced and controlled by the economic inter- ' ests that 'doniinate American society? Art many individual scientists merely opportunists and an adjunct -to the corporate payroll7 Is recombinant DNA experi- inentation and research into genetic engineering being ~' pursued in the laboratories mostly because of its enormous profit potential? How valid are'the criticisms .` of King, Beckwith, Signer, and others? I"a ~ .` ' ~ - diff < an t? N y eren o %;::: The uestion of motives and the determination of q „ what kind of research becomes the subject of inquiry was the topic of Jon Beckwith's address before the American Society for Microbiology a few 'years. ago. -;There to accept the Eli Lilly Award for his work with genes, tne Harvard biologist sbocxed We entzre ' as- ' semblage of dignitaries by contending that scientific - inquiry and the scientists themselves are biased bebause "science [is].;in the hands of the people:who rnn our