Life After Death

soon. The Government has not published its technical report. What if pig pathogens, for instance, are transmitted to humans? This has horrendous implications. The great and the good at the Nuffield Council approved such practices. But what has happened to the political and ethical debate about the possibility that cross-species transplants might lead to the introduction of dangerous new diseases into the human population? Possible infectious agents include viruses, bacteria, fungi and prion proteins - the agent thought to be responsible for Creutzfeld-Jacob Disease and BSE. In their recommendations, Nuffield say: "Species boundaries, in any case are not inviolable". I wonder how many MPs or the public they represent would agree with that statement - if anybody had actually bothered to ask. Existing agricultural and plant stocks are being eliminated as horticulture is displaced by genetically engineered plants.

Ancient resistances and variations which protected species are being wiped out.

New diseases and cancers in people and animals will escape the genie's bottle. All this in the name of money, greed and an insatiable desire to dabble in the grotesque. Cross-species manipulation has serious implications for biodiversity and could lead to an unbalancing of the ecosystem. In developing countries especially, where there is often an absence of regulation, the implications are horrific. The long-term effects on agriculture and sustainability are completely unknown.

Grossly exaggerated claims have been made by those who have vested interests in these techniques. Conversely, scant regard has been shown for the consequences of the genetic revolution.

The Nightmare Kingdoms The state planner will have undreamed of and unparalleled power. He will dress it up to look like power for a parent or patient - and no doubt countless new charters will be issued by Government departments - but we all know what will happen if genetic tests reveal instability, illness, homosexuality, or a low IQ. The nightmare kingdoms will be governed by quality controls and perfection tests. The 21st century will see the emergence of a genetic underclass of the uninsurable, the unbreedable, the unwanted and the unmanned. In this caste system, the suitors, partners and predators will eye your genes with envy or contempt. We will become prisoners of heredity, and slaves of a manipulated reproductive system: British birthright will be replaced by the right birth. Eugenics leads to the suppression of variation and difference. From laws which create a genetic database for the whole population, it is only a small step to laws requiring the data to be lodged with the State; and to compulsion and the elimination of undesirables.

Tyranny not Science In 1996, scientists in Edinburgh boasted about how they had cloned two sheep. In 1997, Dolly became Polly - and human genes were 'successfully' mixed with animal genes. What they failed to reveal, in the self-congratulatory scientific reviews that appeared, was that (before Dolly was produced) three other sheep had