Has The Era Of Genetically Pure “Gattaca Babies” Now Begun?

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Wikimedia Commons

Michael Snyder

Should selective breeding be used to improve the human race?  Should we genetically screen embryos shortly after conception and choose only those that are the most genetically pure?  This may sound like science fiction, but as you will read about below, the technology for this is already operational.

On the 18th of May, a couple in Philadelphia gave birth to a baby that came from an embryo that was selected thanks to a cutting edge procedure known as “next-generation sequencing”.  This procedure allows scientists to read every letter of the human genome very rapidly and very cheaply.  So will millions of parents soon be lining up to check their potential offspring for “genetic abnormalities”?  Has the era of genetically pure “Gattaca babies” now begun?

To Protect Patented Genes, DARPA Wants a Security System that Records Genomic Changes

Wiki Commons

Clay Dillow
PopSci

Here at PopSci we love a good broad agency announcement from DARPA (that’s where they ask the private sector to do something technologically outrageous), but even next to the flying Humvees, the weather manipulation, the cyborg beetles, and the “hundred-year starships,” this one, we have to say, is WAY out there. DARPA wants a genetic security system that’s built into the genome that can monitor for and report on changes to an organism’s genetic makeup.

Or--to borrow Danger Room's metaphor--DARPA wants a “track changes” feature for genomes like the one that tracks edits in a Word document, a technology that will record and report any modification to a genome. They call it Chronicle of Lineage Indicative of Origins, or CLIO. We’re calling it ambitious.

First of all, why? DARPA ostensibly wants such a technology to protect intellectual property. Genomes (and specific genes) are now bio-commodities, and patented microbes and the genes therein are the property of those who create them.

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Beware of GMOs: Genes Remain a Mystery to Scientists

Kim Evans
Natural News

As scientists are busy manipulating the genes of edibles including corn, soybeans, canola, papaya, zucchini, and now rice and salmon, an interesting fact comes into light about what exactly scientists know and don't know about human genes. According to geneticist Steven Salzberg of the University of Maryland, "Not only do we not know what all the genes are - we don't even know how many there are."

Genetically manipulated foods have been found to change the genetic structure of our healthy bacteria - and this makes one wonder if GMO foods might be altering our own genetic make-up as well. But if they are, how would we know? By a geneticist's own words, scientists can't even find all of our genes - let alone know what they all do or how they'll act if they are changed. In addition, one gene often controls several different things - and with scientists not even knowing all of the genes we have, it makes it pretty difficult to know where to look when things start going wrong - and next to impossible to fix.

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Will US Patent Office end gene patent enslavement of the human race?

Mike Adams

Natural News

This is one of the most important issues for the future of human civilization: Who owns your genetic code? Based on existing U.S. law, the corporations own it. Right now, over 20% of your genetic code is owned by biotech corporations (this is a fact). But the U.S. Justice Department has just issued a "friend of the court" briefing that looks poised to overturn this, driving a stake through the heart of the intellectual property monster known as the biotech industry.

This is a major reversal of decades of U.S. policy. If the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) enforces this new ruling, it would mean an end to all biotech patents on human genes. Effectively, it would set our genetic code free from corporate domination.

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