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News from the Center for Genetics and Society

Saturday, February 9, 2008
Posted in Cloning Eugenics Genetic Engineering Health | Tagged Cloning, Eugenics, Genetic Engineering, Health

CGS is proud to announce that our program on Gender, Justice and Human Genetics is now transitioning into an independent organization, called Generations Ahead, with CGS Associate Director Sujatha Jesudason as founding Executive Director.Generations Ahead will bring a social justice perspective to issues raised by the new reproductive and human genetic technologies. It will continue working with social justice organizations to build capacity, cross-movement dialogues, and a coalitional structure to focus on the concerns of communities of color, women, young people, people with disabilities and LGBTQI communities. The creation of Generations Ahead is an exciting step toward fulfilling an important part of CGS’s mission: helping foster multiple organizations addressing the new human biotechnologies from a variety of strategic, constituency, and substantive perspectives, in support of broadly shared goals.

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�A new path for stem cell research, without Holy Grails by Marcy Darnovsky

The field of stem cell research is changing shape almost as fast as the flexible cells themselves. A series of new techniques has moved the stem cell debate onto new technical, political, and ethical landscape, where it may be possible to find a clear path through the current stalemate.

Before the recent developments, it was more-or-less accurate to talk about two kinds of stem cells: adult and embryonic. Adult stem cells, isolated from a variety of tissues including newborns’ umbilical cords, are uncontroversial. Not so embryonic stem cells, which until now have been derived from “surplus” embryos that were created but aren’t needed for assisted reproduction.

This two-part typology no longer holds. Depending on how you count, there are now two or three additional stem cell varieties. Each differs from the others in some important details. And in those details lie some significant devils.
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New Book Makes Dangerous Claim That Inequality Is Genetic by Jesse Reynolds
Alternet.org
January 18th, 2008

Bold books that offer grand theses to explain the course of human history are risky endeavors. Few such attempts rightfully linger in the collective conscious: from the 18th century’s The Wealth of Nations to the following century’s Das Capital and potentially to the relatively recent Guns, Germs, and Steel. But most are quickly forgotten. If these are judged on the merit of the arguments, Gregory Clark’s A Farewell to Alms: A Brief Economic History of the World, will quickly end up in the latter category.

Clark, an economic historian and the chair of the economics department at the University of California, Davis, asks a fundamental question of history: Why did the Industrial Revolution occur where and when it did? In other words, why did the global economy diverge? Why did northern Europe, particularly England, grow rich while the most of the rest of the world remained in poverty? And why haven’t other areas caught up?

The answer he proposes is both beautifully simple and excessively reductionist. By essentially ignoring institutions such as government and religion, major developments, and power relations, his analysis is shackled by historical myopia. But the implications of his hypothesis go beyond 19th century British history. Clark’s proposals have both explicit and implicit consequences for current political and economic debates. The author would have us embrace a retrograde social Darwinism, in which the wealthy of the world are on top of society’s ladder due to superior culture and genetics.
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Geneticizing Disease: Implications for Racial Health Disparities by Jamie D. Brooks and Meredith L. King
Jan 15, 2008

This� joint report [PDF]�by the Center for American Progress and the Center for Genetics and Society examines the mainstream media’s focus on genetic links to disease and health disparities and recent attempts to racialize those genetic links. Detailed in the report are the implications of this trend and a refocusing of the discussion on racial health disparities on the social determinants that impact disparities in the United States.

On January 15th, 2008 the Center for American Progress hosted a panel discussion for the release of the paper, Geneticizing Disease: Implications for Racial Health Disparities co-authored by Jamie D. Brooks of the Center for Genetics and Society and Meredith L. King of the Center for American Progress. In addition to the authors, the panelists included Lisa Crooms, Professor of Law at Howard University and Dr. Nicole Laurie of RAND.

The panel discussion highlighted the mainstream media’s increasing focus on individuals’ genetic predisposition to disease within a racial framework which may be obscuring the broader discussion on known social determinants that impact racial health disparities. The event was attended by 70 people.
A summary of the report was published at AlterNet.org as “Blaming Your Genes for Your Health Problems? Not so Fast.” � ===========================================================���
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�Making Waves, Practicing Wisdom�
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��CGS colleague Charles Halpern’s engaging new memoir, Making Waves and Riding the Currents: Activism and the Practice of Wisdom, makes a compelling case that the new human biotechnologies present us with “a cluster of issues that demands the highest level of attention and care - wisdom of a high order.” The book recounts Charlie’s work as a pioneer of public-interest law, founder of several innovative organizations, head of a progressive philanthropic foundation, and student of Buddhist spirituality.

In addition to all that, Charlie has over the past several years lent his considerable legal talents and political wisdom to the issues raised by human biotechnologies. He was a key participant in opposition mounted by CGS and other public-interest groups to the 2004 ballot measure that established the California stem cell agency, and in subsequent efforts to bring some modicum of oversight and accountability to the program. Charlie testified about its flaws to the California legislature, was quoted in dozens of media accounts in national and state newspapers, and submitted numerous letters and petitions to the agency’s governing board, including one in February 2005 with Former US Secretary of Health Philip Lee. Many of his letters are included in a compilation of documents on the CGS website.
For more on Charlie and Making Waves, see his website.

Making Waves, which features forewords by Robert Reich and the Dalai Lama, includes an eloquent call to the urgent new challenges involving science, religion, justice and the human future:
Read an excerpt… �

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CGS News: 2007 Report on Activities
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�In addition to working towards the creation of Generations Ahead, during 2007 CGS gave priority attention to our communications and base-building efforts. Highlights follow; the full report [PDF]. We authored a record number of articles and op-eds published in key outlets, including the Los Angeles Times, New Scientist, Hastings Center Bioethics Forum, Boston Globe, World Watch, Philadelphia Inquirer, San Francisco Chronicle, and Newsday.

We were quoted on almost a weekly basis in news and feature articles appearing in outlets such as the New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, Associated Press, Christian Science Monitor, Wired, New England Journal of Medicine, New Scientist, Colorlines, Dissent, and AlterNet.org, and appeared regularly on radio and television.

We presented at over thirty conferences, symposia, and other organizational events, including ones sponsored by the New America Foundation, American Association of People with Disabilities, National Health Law Program, Law Students for Choice, Center for American Progress, Planned Parenthood-USA, US Social Forum, Black Women for Wellness, and the American Public Health Association. Internationally, CGS briefed members of the Friends of the Earth International Executive Committee in Amsterdam, and were invited to participate in the World Council of Churches Bioethics Forum in Johannesburg, South Africa.

We launched a new and completely redesigned website and blog, and greatly expanded our press outreach and other communications operations. We broke the $1 million benchmark for funds raised for our work. Appreciations to our many long-time and new donors!