The Future (83 page)
Authors: Al Gore
137
involved in monitoring genetic research that could lead to new bioweapons
National Institutes of Health, Office of Science Policy, “About NSABB,” 2012,
http://oba.od.nih.gov/biosecurity/about_nsabb.html
.
138
research teams working on projects considered militarily sensitive
Sample, “
Nature
Publishes Details of Bird Flu Strain That Could Spread Among People.”
139
federally funded research into the cloning of human beings
Center for Genetics and Society, “Failure to Pass Federal Cloning Legislation, 1997–2003,”
http://www.geneticsandsociety.org/article.php?id=305
.
140
legal implications of human cloning
Mary Meehan, “Looking More Like America?,”
Our Sunday Visitor
, November 3, 1996,
http://www.ewtn.com/library/ISSUES/LOOKLIKE.TXT
.
141
government-financed research program into ethics
Edward J. Larson, “Half a Tithe for Ethics,”
National Forum
73, no. 2 (Spring 1993): 15–18.
142
“possible copying mechanism for the genetic material”
J. D. Watson and F.H.C. Crick, “Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids,”
Nature
, April 25, 1953.
143
science of cloning, genetic engineering, and genetic screening
See, for example: Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight and the Subcommittee on Science, Research, and Technology, Committee on Science and Technology, U.S. House of Representatives, “Commercialization of Academic Biomedical Research,” June 8–9, 1981; Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight, Committee on Science and Technology, U.S. House of Representatives, “Genetic Screening and the Handling of High-Risk Groups in the Workplace,” October 14–15, 1981.
144
and fifteen years later they succeeded with Dolly
U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Human Genome Project, “Cloning Fact Sheet,” May 11, 2009,
http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/elsi/cloning.shtml#animalsQ
.
145
they have cloned many other livestock and other animals
Ibid.
146
ethical concerns that had prevented them from attempting such procedures
Dan W. Brock, “Cloning Human Beings: An Assessment of the Ethical Issues Pro and Con,” in
Cloning Human Beings
, vol. 2,
Commissioned Papers
(Rockville, MD:
National Bioethics Advisory Commission, 1997),
http://bioethics.georgetown.edu/nbac/pubs/cloning2/cc5.pdf
.
147
human cloning has been made illegal in almost every country in Europe
Ibid.; “19 European Nations OK Ban on Human Cloning,”
National Catholic Register
, April 18, 1999.
148
“protection of the security of human genetic material”
Brock, “Cloning Human Beings.”
149
clear form of harm to the individual who is cloned or to society
Brian Alexander, “(You)
2
,”
Wired
, February 2001; “Dolly’s Legacy,”
Nature
, February 22, 2007; Steve Connor, “Human Cloning Is Now ‘Inevitable,’ ”
Independent
, August 30, 2000; John Tierney, “Are Scientists Playing God? It Depends on Your Religion,”
New York Times
, November 20, 2007.
150
a line of identical embryonic stem cells that reproduced themselves
David Cyranoski, “Cloned Human Embryo Makes Working Stem Cells,”
Nature
, October 5, 2011.
151
Several countries
Tierney, “Are Scientists Playing God?”
152
has broken this modern taboo against human cloning
Steve Connor, “ ‘I Can Clone a Human Being’—Fertility Doctor,”
New Zealand Herald
, April 22, 2009; Tierney, “Are Scientists Playing God?”
153
There has yet been no confirmed birth of a human clone
National Human Genome Research Institute, Cloning Fact Sheet.
154
other forms of technological progress
Brock, “Cloning Human Beings.”
155
that it is inevitable in any case
Roman Altshuler, “Human Cloning Revisited: Ethical Debate in the Technological Worldview,”
Biomedical Law & Ethics
3, no. 2 (2009): 177–95.
156
most experiments because of the medical benefits that can be gained
Brock, “Cloning Human Beings.”
157
individuals and run the risk of “commoditizing” human beings
Ibid.; Altshuler, “Human Cloning Revisited.”
158
views of the rights and protections due to every person
Leon Kass and James Q. Wilson,
Ethics of Human Cloning
(Washington, DC: American Enterprise Institute, 1998).
159
more generalized humanist assertion of individual dignity
Brock, “Cloning Human Beings”; Altshuler, “Human Cloning Revisited.”
160
In yet another illustration
“Meat on Drugs,”
Consumer Reports
, June 2012.
161
a truly shocking 80 percent of all U.S. antibiotics
Gardiner Harris, “U.S. Tightens Rules on Antibiotics Use for Livestock,”
New York Times
, April 11, 2012.
162
new rule that will require a prescription from veterinarians
“Meat on Drugs,”
Consumer Reports
.
163
Since the discovery of penicillin in 1929 by Alexander Fleming
“A Brief History of Antibiotics,” BBC News, October 8, 1999,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/background_briefings/antibiotics/163997.stm
.
164
Although Fleming said his discovery was “accidental”
Douglas Allchin, SHiPS Resource Center, “Penicillin and Chance,”
http://www1.umn.edu/ships/updates/fleming.htm
.
165
who first discovered that CO
2
traps heat
Spencer Weart, “The Discovery of Global Warming: The Carbon Dioxide Greenhouse Effect,” February 2011,
http://www.aip.org/history/climate/co2.htm
.
166
was not used in a significant way until the early 1940s
“A Brief History of Antibiotics,” BBC News.
167
many other potent antibiotics were discovered in the 1950s and 1960s
Ibid.
168
discoveries have slowed to a trickle
Ibid.
169
life-saving antibiotics is rapidly eroding their effectiveness
“The Spread of Superbugs,”
Economist
, March 31, 2011.
170
ways that circumvent the effectiveness of the antibiotic
Brandon Keim, “Antibiotics Breed Superbugs Faster Than Expected,”
Wired
, February 11, 2010.
171
only when they are clearly needed
Alexander Fleming, “Penicillin,” Nobel Lecture, December 11, 1945,
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1945/fleming-lecture.pdf
; E. J. Mundell, “Antibiotic Combinations Could Fight Resistant Germs,” ABC News, March 23, 2007,
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Healthday/story?id=4506442&page=1#.UDVmwo40jdk
.
172
they stumble upon new traits that make the antibiotics impotent
Keim, “Antibiotics Breed Superbugs Faster Than Expected.”
173
Some antibiotics have already become ineffective against certain diseases
Katie Moisse, “Antibiotic Resistance: The 5 Riskiest Superbugs,” ABC News, March 27, 2012,
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Wellness/antibiotic-resistance-riskiest-superbugs/story?id=15980356#.UC7l0UR9nMo
.
174
rate that is frightening to many health experts
Moisse, “Antibiotic Resistance: The 5 Riskiest Superbugs.”
175
multidrug-resistant tuberculosis
Ibid.
176
the FDA formed a new task force
Stephanie Yao, “New FDA Task Force Will Support Innovation in Antibacterial Drug Development,” Food and Drug Administration press release, September 24, 2012.
177
in spite of these basic medical facts, many governments
Worldwatch Institute, “Global Meat Production and Consumption Continue to Rise,” 2011,
http://www.worldwatch.org/global-meat-production-and-consumption-continue-rise-1
; Philip K. Thornton, “Livestock Production: Recent Trends, Future Prospects,”
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B
, September 27, 2010.
178
including, shockingly, the United States government
“Meat on Drugs,”
Consumer Reports
.
179
but the impact on profits is very clear and sizable
Matthew Perrone, “Does Giving Antibiotics to Animals Hurt Humans?,” Associated Press, April 20, 2012.
180
superbugs that are immune to the impact of antibiotics
Ibid.
181
the antibiotics are given in subtherapeutic doses
“Our Big Pig Problem,”
Scientific American
, February 8, 2012.
182
not principally used for the health of the livestock anyway
Harris, “U.S. Tightens Rules on Antibiotics Use for Livestock.”
183
dispute the science while handing out campaign contributions
Ibid.; 2012 PAC Summary Data, Open Secrets,
http://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/lookup2.php?strID=C00028787&cycle=2012
, accessed August 22, 2012; National Cattlemen’s Beef Association lobbying expenses, Open Secrets,
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=National_Cattlemen’s_Beef_Association#cite_note-1
, August 22, 2012.
184
Last year, scientists confirmed that
Richard Knox, “How Using Antibiotics in Animal Feed Creates Superbugs,” NPR, February 21, 2012,
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2012/02/21/147190101/how-using-antibiotics-in-animal-feed-creates-superbugs
.
185
have thus far been successful in preventing a ban
Harris, “U.S. Tightens Rules on Antibiotics Use for Livestock.”
186
until recently, a regulation limiting this insane practice
Ibid.
187
European Union has already banned antibiotics in livestock feed
Knox, “How Using Antibiotics in Animal Feed Creates Superbugs.”
188
but in a number of other countries
Ibid.; “Meat on Drugs,”
Consumer Reports;
Worldwatch Institute, “Global Meat Production and Consumption Continue to Rise”; Thornton, “Livestock Production.”
189
only one of many bacteria that are now becoming resistant
Knox, “How Using Antibiotics in Animal Feed Creates Superbugs.”
190
mad cow disease
“Bill Seeks Permanent Ban on Downer Slaughter at Meat Plants,”
Food Safety News
, January 13, 2012.
191
infected by the pathogen (a misfolded protein, or prion) that causes the disease
World Health Organization, “Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy,” November 2002,
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs113/en/
.
192
Animals with later stages of the disease
I. Ramasamy, M. Law, S. Collins, and F. Brook, “Organ Distribution of Prion Proteins in Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease,”
Lancet Infectious Diseases
3, no. 4 (April 2003): 214–22.
193
fifty times more likely to have the disease
“Bill Seeks Permanent Ban on Downer Slaughter at Meat Plants,”
Food Safety News
.
194
should be diverted from the food supply
Ibid.
195
manifested those symptoms just before they were slaughtered
Ibid.
196
in order to protect a tiny portion of the industry’s profits
Emad Mekay, “Beef Lobby Blocks Action on Mad Cow, Activists Say,” Inter Press Service, January 8, 2004,
http://www.monitor.net/monitor/0401a/copyright/madcow4.html
; Charles Abbott, “Analysis: U.S. Mad Cow Find: Lucky Break or Triumph of Science?,” Reuters, April 25, 2012.
197
a regulation that embodies the intent of the law rejected
“Obama Bans ‘Downer’ Cows from Food Supply,” Associated Press, March 14, 2009.
198
could be reversed by Obama’s successor
Ibid.
199
In 1922, a “model eugenical sterilization law”
Paul A. Lombardo,
Three Generations, No Imbeciles: Eugenics, the Supreme Court, and Buck v. Bell
(Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008), p. 91.
200
were sterilized under laws similar to Laughlin’s design
Alex Wellerstein, “Harry Laughlin’s ‘Model Eugenical Sterilization Law,’ ”
http://alexwellerstein.com/laughlin/
.
201
were burdensome to the state because of the expense
Paul Lombardo, “Eugenic Sterilization Laws,” Image Archive on the American Eugenics Movement,
http://www.eugenicsarchive.org/html/eugenics/essay8text.html
.
202
people who were reproducing at rates not possible in the past
Jonathan D. Moreno,
The Body Politic: The Battle Over Science in America
(New York: Bellevue Literary Press, 2011), p. 67.
203
he obviously believed they were heritable
Ibid., p. 67.
204
Laughlin was himself an epileptic
Wellerstein, “Harry Laughlin’s ‘Model Eugenical Sterilization Law.’ ”