-Caveat Lector-
from the web
John
The following news releases provide additional information on the recent
"Israeli germ warfare" thread. The only US coverage of this issue appears
to
have been a front-page article in the Washington Times on Saturday, January
23, 1999, Pages A1 & A8, entitled Race-Specific Weapons. This article
contains a reference to a new book by Malcolm Dando of the Department of
Peace
Studies at the University of Bradford in northern England, entitled
Biotechnology Weapons and Humanity. The Washington Times article is
apparently unavailable from their website.
Fight Genetic Weapons, British Doctors Urge
http://users.westnet.gr/~cgian/geneweap.htm
LONDON, Reuters [WS] via Individual Inc. : Gene therapy could be twisted
into
terrifying genetic weapons that target and destroy ethnic groups, British
doctors warned
on Tuesday.
The British Medical Association (BMA) is so worried by the possibility that
it has
commissioned a team of geneticists, biologists, lawyers and warfare experts
to see if
the technology is possible, and if so, to ban it.
``It is a particularly horrifying thought,'' said Dr Vivienne Nathanson,
head
of science
and ethics for the BMA, who started the study.
``If you were a dictator somewhere in the world and you wanted to get rid
of
a group of
people in your population who were opposing you -- whether you are talking
about
Hutus and Tutsis in Rwanda, Bosnian Serbs or 1930s Germany -- you could use
this,''
she added.
Gene therapy homes in on genes that certain people have that are different
and can cause
disease. For example, people with cystic fibrosis have easily identified
mutations, as do
some sufferers of breast cancer.
New genes, or therapeutic proteins, can be delivered using engineered DNA
--
the basic
genetic building material.
Nathanson said this could be twisted.
``If we can target people to have a therapeutic effect then maybe you could
put
something in that is dangerous,'' she said in a telephone interview.
Race war would not be possible -- races are too genetically diverse and
what
people
recognise as ``race'' has little genetic basis.
``You are looking for what in Scotland would be a clan or in Africa a
tribe,'' Nathanson
said. ``It's a family grouping where one would expect to see a genetic
similarity.''
Genes targeted by such weapons could control a person's appearance --
height
or hair
colour -- or how their bodies process certain drugs.
``If that is the case, and it is likely to be the case, then it is possible
to say we may
have a weapon which was a virus or a chemical compound which has a genetic
targeting component,'' Nathanson said.
``We have to recognise that there is a potential for weapons with a fair
degree of
selectivity and extraordinary awfulness.''
Such compounds could be delivered as a gas or spray, or put into the water
supply.
They could kill, make people infertile or cause the birth of deformed
children.
``It would probably not be 100 percent effective but I've never really come
across a
dictator who seemed terribly concerned about losing some of their own
population,''
she said.
``We are doing the study at the moment using as many lawyers and other
experts as we
can to find out whether we think it is feasible,'' said Nathanson, who
presented her fears
to the BMA's annual meeting in Edinburgh.
``If we do think such weapons are feasible, and so far we haven't heard
anything that we
think means they wouldn't be, a ban that works would be needed,'' Nathanson
said.
``It would need international collaboration and cooperation.''
But Nathanson said she feared that, if such weapons were ever developed,
there would
be no way to ban them. For example, landmines were proving hard to ban on
US
soil in the next few years.
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