The World Health Organization lists at least 30 new diseases that have emerged in the last 20 years in addition to more virulent strains of old infectious diseases, the latter due in part to the overuse of antibiotics in both humans and farm animals.  Ho continues:

"Geneticists have now linked the emergence of pathogenic bacteria and of antibiotic resistance to horizontal gene transfer - the transfer of genes to unrelated species, by infection through viruses, through pieces of genetic material, DNA, taken up into cells from the environment or by unusual mating taking place between unrelated species.  For example, horizontal gene transfer and subsequent genetic recombination have generated the bacterial strains responsible for the cholera outbreak in India in 1992, and the Streptococcus epidemic in Tayside in 1993. The E. 157 coli strain involved in the recent outbreaks in Scotland is believed to have originated from horizontal gene transfer from the pathogen Shigella.  Many unrelated bacterial pathogens, causing diseases from bubonic plague to tree blight, are found to share an entire set of genes for invading cells, which have almost certainly spread by horizontal gene transfer."

From the purely human point of view, selective breeding within a species has brought about improvements in farm animals and crops - along with the inevitable failures, over 200 in the case of cloning Dolly.  Cross-species hybridization is a different ball game.   It is not at all clear how mixing the components of two (or more) species will affect the billions of organisms that comprise the intricately woven web of life.  Changing one component affects all the others in some, not necessarily immediately visible way and offers an opportunistic breeding ground for viruses and bacteria to mutate and develop new strains for which existing plants and animals will have had no opportunity to develop defenses.

With the colossal chemical and drug companies firmly in charge, it seems as if their bottom lines will receive at least as much consideration as the public good, much more if past history is any indication.

Amidst all the controversy there is an unusual opportunity for creationists and evolutionists to defend common ground.

Whether one believes that God created every species in all its perfection in the course of a day, or whether one believes all life forms inhabiting the earth today have evolved through ages of adaptation, there should be a strong incentive to resist interfering with either the handiwork of the creator or the millennia of adaptation.  The alternative is to leave the multinational mammonites in command of the health of our planet and all the species who dwell or grow thereon. - B.R.

YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE A GENIUS TO OPPOSE PATENTING GENES  by Comitato Scientifico Antivivisezionista

<> There is a spectre stalking Europe.  The European Parliament is about to approve a Directive that will make it possible to patent generically manipulated living organisms.

<> The Directive will hand control over the genetic heritage of humans, animals and plants to the few individuals rich enough to buy the patents, thereby effectively transforming life life itself into a commodity good to be altered on the whim of partisan commercial interests.

<> Under the influence of the world's most powerful lobbies. the European Parliament seems ready to ignore international conventions for the protection of man and the environment and to go down in history as this millennium's Pontius Pilate. 

<> The Directive on the "Protection of Biotechnological Inventions" is effectively a denial of any but an economic  meaning to life.  It will allow patents to protect the marketing of both parts of the human body - such as genes - and artificial organisms obtained by crossing genes from different species: plants with animals, animals with humans.  These organisms could also be reproduced by cloning and their commercial exploitation would be granted to any descendants.

<> Selected high-yield breeds would colonise the planet, limiting its biodiversity and, by upsetting natural equilibria, increasing out of all proportion the danger of famine, ecological disaster and diseases that today are not only unpredictable, but totally unimaginable (and of which "mad cows" are perhaps a mere foretaste).  The man-pig hybrids intended to provide organs for transplants could trigger new epidemics by passing on viruses from other species.  And then, what percentage of human genes will a pig need before it can call itself a human?  And how many pig organs will a human have to have before he is classified as a pig?

<> How can scientific progress have any future if it is covered by industrial secrecy imposed by the logic of a market for patents?  How can we take a stand against doctors who are already announcing their readiness and willingness to clone their patients?

<> If you want Europe to belong to its citizens and not to the multinationals, you can take part in our campaign to make the European Parliament aware of all the issues involved.  To find out how, call or write (including by e-mail) to Comitato Scientifico Antivivsezionista which, together with other associations, is fighting to prevent this nightmare coming true.

Address:  Via P.A. Micheli, 62  /  Roma 00197  /  Italy   

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