Life After Death

Chapter Five The New Battleground: Genetics During a debate in the House of Commons on 19 July 1996, the Chairman of the Science and Technology Committee, Sir Giles Shaw MP, revealed that his Select Committee was recommending that a body, based on the HFEA model, would be established to oversee developments in genetics. Such a body has come on the scene, in typical British fashiEA model, would be established to oversee developments in genetics. Such a body has come on the scene, in typical British fashiEA model, would be established to oversee developments in genetics. Such a body has come on the scene, in typical British fashiEA model, would be established EA mEA model, would be estEA model, would be established to oversee developments in genetics. SuEA model, would be established to oversee developments in genetics. Such a body has come on the scene, in typical British fashig critical parameters is obvious; and that an authority based on the HFEA would prove totally inadequate in controlling them is also clear.

The Abolition of Man One day, tissue engineering and genetic science will work hand-in-hand. By growing whole limbs and whole bodies, reared in artificial wombs, scientists will be able to create the automatons of science fiction, the slaves of tyrannical regimes.

Unless a stop is put to it now it will indeed lead, in C. S. Lewis's graphic phrase, to the "Abolition of Man". Human genes have already been mixed with animal genes.

Consumers, because of the absence of explanatory labelling, have no idea of this when they buy products derived from them. Chickens can be made to grow to fullsize in 37 days rather than 84. Cows are bred that yield 2,200 gallons of milk (10,000 litres) a year, and they can even produce human breast milk. Jeeps - a combination of goats and sheep - have been bred; and pigs, weighing 55 stone (350 kg) have been manufactured - fatter, and therefore more commercially valuable, but impotent and arthritic too. If politicians were properly informed, and if an ethical watchdog was doing its job, consumers would be better protected - at least given the information that their bacon had been commercially exploited and genetically engineered. No-one is monitoring the long-term effects on people who are unwittingly eating these unmarked products on a daily basis. Millions are revolted by the obscenities of farming methods. Agricultural workhouses, sheds and factories are a disgrace and should be closed down.

Species Boundaries are not Inviolable An ethical approach to such questions would also involve the most profound challenge to the new secular orthodoxies. Take xenotransplants - animal to human transplants - as an example. This is now technically possible and likely to begin