Re: Genome project, 3 agendas, and many spin-offs

Luis Medina (fmedina@PEAK.ORG)
Sat, 4 Mar 1995 18:52:46 -0800

On Fri, 3 Mar 1995 LawrencegL@AOL.COM wrote:
> .........
> I find it hard to believe anyone would want to
> return to a time when children died of infections that are now easily
> treatable .....

best way to prevent children's ifections/disease is preventing them
not treating them. A well nourished (physically and emotionally) youth
is the best way to prevent disease. What is the US congress doing?
cutting food subsidies for kids, to save money! .. and from the same
congress : sorry no more subsidies for vaccinations. Sure, the drug
and health related companies are going to profit a lot more from
treatments than from prevention.

>.......
> The Genome project for the first time has allocated funds for the
> ELSIE Project which is pruely ethical in nature. Hopefully with this input
> and a greater sensitivity to political concerns advances can be made that
> will not jeopordize us as people yet allow us to improve the good of
> everyone.
> ........

So ethically, who are the big (like in $$$ big $$$) beneficiaries?
the big beneficiaries are going to be those that can pay for the hi-Tech
treatments not the general public.

last point. In every population there is variability of genetic
characteristics, from color of the eyes to resistance to disease. What the
Genome project is doing is calling all this variability genetic defects! ...
and they keep looking for more "new diseases" so that the
pharmaceutical companies can look for new ways to make more money.