The powers of mutants in the recent film X-Men 3: The Last Stand may be fanciful, but not ridiculous, at least to a growing number of believers in Homo Sapiens 2.0. A recent seminar at Stanford University Law School attracted about 150 participants from Europe, Asia, New Zealand and the US who discussed enhancing human intellects and bodies. Topics ranged from improving athletes performance to uploading personalities onto a computer. It was all part of the visionary panorama of an influential movement called transhumanism.
In the words of one of the speakers, Ronald Bailey, author of the book Liberation Biology and science correspondent for Reason magazine, "As a nascent philosophical and political movement, transhumanism epitomises our most daring, courageous, imaginative, and idealistic aspirations. The transhumanist quest to liberate future generations from the immemorial curses of disease, disability and early death is a new grand narrative worthy of humanity and posthumanity."
Although most people feel uneasy about the artificial creation of an enhanced version of homo sapiens, Bailey argues that it is quite ethical for people to alter personalities, abolish sleep, increase physical strength, boost intelligence and memories, change sex, and even change the number of their chromosomes for both themselves and their children.
Transhumanists believe that enhancement is inevitable as technology progresses. Drugs already help people to cope with less sleep and to increase their memory power. A neuroscientist in California is working on an artificial hippocampus, a part of the brain, to help Alzheimer's patients. While these might elevate raise Fred Nerks to the status of an X-Man, they are a step in that direction. What will happen with the progress of neuroscience, regenerative medicine, pharmacology and other fields, however, is difficult to predict. As Bailey remarks about his colleagues, "telling visionaries from crackpots is never an easy task". One of them, George Dvorsky, of the website Betterhumans, contended at the conference that we have a moral responsibility to raise animals to a higher level of consciousness. Another, transsexual Martine Rothblatt, envisages uploading human consciousness into computers.
Transhumanism is on the radar of conservative bioethicists, some of whom suggest that making heritable changes to the human genome ought to be a crime against humanity. But its supporters dismiss these fears. Racists once used similar arguments to maintain the status quo, they respond. ~ Reason, June 2
WILMUT BACKS CLONED EMBRYOS
The creator of the first cloned mammal, Dolly the sheep, says that cloning embryonic human beings is a moral imperative, even though he remains "implacably opposed" to cloning adult human beings. In a new book, After Dolly, written with the science editor of the London Daily Telegraph, Professor Ian Wilmut says that "I am extremely concerned about the effects on a child of being a clone of another person and I oppose it. However, an early embryo is not a person and I see the use of nuclear transfer to prevent a child's having a dreadful disease as far less controversial."
In fact, what Wilmut is proposing is more radical than cloning, which simply duplicates a genome. He wants to create technology which will allow him to alter the genome of an IVF embryo carrying a genetic disease, such as Huntington's disease or motor neurone disease. Such a technique could easily be used to create children with higher IQs or blue eyes.
Wilmut acknowledges that his views will be controversial, but he says that parents should be given a choice. "Some people will still prefer to put up with the random insults of nature than be subject to human intervention... [But] I want people to have new options when it comes to that most fundamental urge: to bring healthy children into this world," he says. "The use of genetic and reproductive technologies is not a step backwards into darkness but a step forwards into the light." Not everyone agrees, of course. The Scottish Council on Human Bioethics said his proposals were "a new step down the road to eugenics". ~ London Daily Telegraph, June 5
CHINA CRACKS DOWN ON SEX SELECTION
Since 2004 North China's Hebei Province has closed 201 clinics involved in gender selection, an official has said. The province has discovered and dealt with 848 gender selection cases in 745 hospitals and clinics. Charges have been filed against three people. In some areas of Hebei there are 134 boys for every 100 girls. The national ratio was 116.9 to 100 in a 2000 census and 108.5 to 100 in 1982. Hebei Governor Ji Yunshi said the province has introduced financial incentives to balance baby girls and boys by 2010. According to Xinhua newsagency, identifying the gender of foetuses and aborting girls for gender selection are banned in China. ~ Xinhua, Jun 1
OXFORD LAB STILL PLAGUED BY PROTEST
The endless battle between Oxford University and animal rights groups continues. In the latest instalment, the group Speak says that it has discovered where the builders of a £20 million animal testing laboratory are being housed. Intimidation by extremists already forced work on the facility to cease for 17 months. Speak now appears to be threatening to harass the workers, many of whom already work in balaclavas so that they cannot be identified.
Speak feels that the builders are engaged in a thoroughly unethical undertaking. It has issued a statement which says: "At the end of a day after building a monument to cruelty and a fraudulent scientific practice, they are able to relax and enjoy themselves... Do they give a moment's thought for the animals that will die in their thousands, imprisoned in tiny cages. Alone they will suffer; in fear they will die -- do they care? Of course not; they are on triple wages."
In the meantime, the remains of an 82-year-old British woman which had been exhumed and stolen by extremists agitating against a guinea pig farm, have been reburied. They were exhumed and stolen two years ago as part of a campaign of intimidation against the owners of the farm. ~ London Times, May 31
CHINESE HOSPITAL SPRUIKS SPINAL CURES
Although stem cell cures for spinal cord injury and motor neurone disease still are still a distant dream in the US and Europe, a doctor in China is touting the benefits of stem cells injections on a website, China Stem Cell News, and advertising its wares widely on Google.
Dr Huang Hongyun, director of the Beijing clinic, does not claim to be a miracle worker, but he says that some of the patients experience substantial improvement. "I was bowled over," reads one quote, from Dr Paul Cooper, of New York University School of Medicine. "They didn't have patients who were totally paralysed and then get up and walk. But there were people who couldn't hold objects, and then they could after the operation." Quotes like these are backed up with case studies, complete with testimonials from American patients and videos.
What the web site does not disclose is the misgivings of scientists and neurosurgeons in the West. They say that Dr Huang has not provided substantial clinical evidence or empirical data to back up his claims. The potential risks to his patients are very real. ~ China Stem Cell News website
A GOOD WAY TO GO: MOUSE EUTHANASIA
While politicians fret about euthanasing humans, bench scientists in the US and UK are having bunfights over euthanasing mice. According to Nature, tens, perhaps hundreds, of millions of mice are killed every year in labs around the world. The number is on the rise, too, because of the need for specially bred transgenic mice for medical research. The most common method of execution is gassing the rodents with CO2, followed by a procedure which breaks the animal's neck. However, some researchers regard this as cruel because it appears to cause the animal some distress and it could be painful. A conference at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, in the UK, was convoked in February to discuss the most humane method of euthanasing rodents.
The European Commission is also revising a directive on lab-animal welfare at the moment. It may instruct researchers to use anaesthesia before killing with CO2 and advise that killing with CO2 alone should be phased out as soon as possible. However, change will not be easy, as the present method is clean, well established and cheap. Alternatives include anaesthetic gases, guillotining, and argon gas -- but no one is suggesting the household mouse trap. ~ Nature, June 1
SPERM DONOR CRISIS IN SCOTLAND
All of Scotland's five fertility clinics are struggling and one has closed for lack of sperm donors. A recent law has given people in the UK the right to trace their biological father. As soon as it came into effect sperm donation stopped. At the moment in all of Scotland there is only one active sperm donor.
"When the law was introduced, we anticipated having to offer a more limited treatment. We never anticipated having to close," said a spokeswoman for the Aberdeen fertility clinic. "It's impossible to buy sperm. We tried every unit across the country. Every time you phone you are told there are no supplies. The big suppliers are keeping sperm for their own patients in their private clinics." Infertility Network UK, a lobby group, has begun calling for a nationwide recruitment campaign. ~ London Times, June 4
SWISS TO KEEP ASSISTED SUICIDE
The Swiss government has declared that it has no intention of reining in "suicide tourism". Pressure had been mounting for tighter controls on assisted suicide because several organisations, such as Dignitas and Exit, are helping scores of Swiss and visiting foreigners to kill themselves. However Justice Minister Christoph Blocher says that new legislation is not needed and that the Swiss cabinet would not consider outlawing assisted suicide. Closer monitoring of suicide organisations was also ruled out because too much bureaucracy would be involved and because it would legitimise existing groups. ~ Swiss Info, May 31
IN BRIEF: stem cells, Philip Nitschke, Ronald Cranford
STEM CELL CONFERENCE: Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle will be the keynote speaker at the second annual National Stem Cell Policy and Advocacy Summit at Stanford University on June 10 and 11. The summit will bring together some of the top scientists, policy makers, and patient advocates in the country to discuss the status of stem cell research in the United States. ~ Doyle press release
NITSCHKE IN NZ: Australian euthanasia activist Dr Philip Nitschke plans to return to New Zealand to conduct suicide workshops now that plans to prosecute him have been dropped. The Ministry of Health has dismissed a complaint made by the New Zealand Medical Council that Dr Nitschke had been practising medicine without a licence. ~ ABC, Jun 2
RONALD CRANFORD: A controversial figure in the Terri Schiavo case has passed away after a battle with cancer. Ronald Cranford, a brain injury specialist and bioethicist, was one of the experts who testified that Terri Schiavo and Nancy Cruzan, another woman whose feeding tube was removed after a court battle, were irreparably brain-damaged. His 1994 analysis of the "persistent vegetative state" has been immensely influential, although he was bitterly criticised by supporters of keeping Terri Schiavo alive. ~ New York Times, June 3
GENETIC DISEASE: A tragic instance of genetic disease has come to light in the UK. A couple have discovered that all three of their sons, aged 5, 6 and 8, have the incurable disorder adrenoleukodystrophy. This causes sufferers to lose sight and hearing and the ability to walk or talk. Most die before reaching maturity. Experts say that three children in one family with the illness is almost unheard of. Doctors are considering bone marrow transplants and stem cell treatments. ~ London Telegraph, May 24
