Dr Michael W. Fox: BEYOND EVOLUTION The Genetically Altered Future of Plants, Animals, the Earth...and Humans The Lyons Press $24.95 hc 256pp  indexed

As its title implies, this  book takes a wide-angled view of genetic engineering (GE).  It affords people aware of one aspect of GE a better appreciation of the almost unlimited scope of gene technology and makes an excellent introduction for people who are just coming to grips with the subject.  It is beautifully written, reminiscent of, but different from, Rachel Carson who described hard scientific facts in lyrical phrases that stirred the emotions as mere facts, however horrifying, could not.  You could feel how deeply she cared.  The same is true of Michael Fox.

I wish everybody would read this book and, as the author advises,  get involved with the decision making of how this new technology will be employed.  So far, in this country, that decision has largely been left to the industry that hopes to profit from it.  Public perception changed, however, with the enormity of Monsanto's announcement that it had created plants with a killer gene that prevented them from producing viable seeds for replanting.  (If you think this Terminator gene [since withdrawn] was the worst thing that's happened, wait until you've read about Verminator.)

Americans then began to heed the Europeans and others who were in some cases desperately waging guerrilla warfare against GE crops, and to take seriously what some of their own scientists had been trying to tell them.
   
GE involves more than plants, soil and soil organisms, however.  Like Prince Charles, Fox advocates organic farming methods as opposed to chemical and biological interference.  He takes pains to explain the difference between cross breeding plants, which has been going on for centuries, as opposed to breaking down the species barrier by inserting animal genes into plants or other animals.

He expresses deep concern for the animal suffering it can and has caused as humans tinker with genes to alter animals to suit their own purposes with little or no  regard for how it will affect the animals.

He is careful not to ban all genetic engineering, however. Indeed, he feels that used wisely, it has the potential to help save the earth and all its beings from the harms that have resulted from human activity: "We have acquired a godlike power over the earth's creation via our dominion over the genes of life.  If we do not use this new found power to heal the earth by healing ourselves, and heal ourselves by healing the earth, then the suffering of humanity and the desecration of the environment will continue.  Are we opening Pandora's box, releasing forces about which we know little, whose cumulative domino effect could be socially, economically, and environmentally devastating?"

So far, the answer would appear to be affirmative. "We are crossing the boundaries that separate us from other species, not by way of empathy, but through genetic engineering.  Instead of contemplation, we engage in manipulation.  Where there was once communion and wisdom, there is now control and information.  Life, once held sacred, is now a patentable commodity.  Biotechnology applied with reverence and humility, may do some good, but lacking empathy and ethical sensibility, and serving as a means to gratify pecuniary ends and insatiable wants, it can only do more harm."

What's been done is done,  but there is still time for the Precautionary Principle to replace profit as the primary objective in future gene experiments.  The more people understand this technology, the less likely it is that  the worst will happen.

"Or has this technology advanced too fast for our ethical sensibility, moral imagination, and scientific knowledge to enable us to maximize its benefits and minimize its risks?"


Dr Michael W Fox is a veterinarian, bioethicist,  and a vice president  of the Humane Society of the United States.  He is the author of over 40 books including Concepts in Ethology: Animal Behavior and Bioethics, (2nd edition 1998), Eating with Conscience: The Bioethics of Food (1997),  The Boundless Circle (1996), and Superpigs and Wondercorn (1992).

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