Ethical Dimension of Genetic Research

Listening to audio books is something I missed quite a bit when I was in Beijing. I have been hooked on "reading" books since late 1990's. My good friend JN heard of my interest in mythology and loaned me a deck of tapes, "The Hero with a Thousand Faces" by Joseph Campbell. I enjoyed listening to this book while driving to and from work. I did not read anything further by Joseph Campbell. But, I ventured into local libraries to start my audio book journey. I still remember that the first one I picked was "Robinson Crusoe." That was one of the few translated non-textbooks I read. I read very little for enjoyment when I was young. The number of books I actually finished reading in English is small. I can remember one, "The Good Earth" by Pearl S. Buck. Three or four years into this new new hobby, I kept a record of the books I "read", and even gave them a score from 1 to 10. I have to thank JN for leading me into a life of reading and enrichment.

The most recent book I finished is Michael Crichton's "Next", a book about genetic research, corporate greed and legal intervention. He is probably most famous for "Jurassic Park", because it was turned into a successful series of movies. It surprised me to learn that this prolific author, Dr. Crichton, died of lymphoma in 2008. There are two interesting characters/animals in the novel, a transgenic chimp, Dave, and a transgenic African grey parrot, Gerard. This is fictional, but it is not too far from what we might run into these new breeds in the future. We need to consider the ethical and moral responsibilities of our actions.

"Next" is overall a good book with a bit too much on the side plots, and thus it is hard to focus on the main plot. The odd part is that the audio CD ended with an interview with the author. Dr. Crichton actually felt very strongly about the ethical dimension of the genetic research and its ramifications for our future. Indeed, I was happy to have that extra segment on the CD. It let me know that the book is not just a novel to him. I took a refresher class in Chemistry 1A at West Valley community college in 2001 and another class in human genetics at the height of human genome news and the cloned Dolly the Sheep. It was and still is exciting to see molecular biology making such progress, but it requires us to ponder the ethical and moral issues of genetic research.
After I came back to the States in April, I read "Christ the Lord: the Road to Cana," by Ann Rice; "Treasure Island," by Robert Louis Stevenson; "Saving fish from drowning," by Amy Tan; and "Next". I am now in the middle of "Op-Center - State of Siege," by Tom Clancy. Listening to a thriller while driving is questionable. I was so involved in the book and I had no recollection of going through the toll both with my FasTrak sticker.

Shanghai was mentioned several times in the book as a heaven for generic research and gene therapy. Is this really true? For lack of any ethical concerns and social responsibilities in the regulations? I have to ask my good friend in Nanjing who is leading a genetic research institute there. Nanjing is about 100 miles from Shanghai.

First Chinese Spacewalk

On September 27, 2008, Zhai Zhigang, wearing a Chinese-developed Feitian space suit, conducted a 20-minute spacewalk, the first ever for a Chinese astronaut. It is a great achievement for the Chinese. To me, the space project is a measure of science and technology know-how, as well as the ability to carry out large-scale logistics planning and process. The tolerance for errors is extremely low and it is a risky business to be in. Aside from these general observations, I, as a nobody civilian, do see two strikingly different features between the space programs run by the US and by the Chinese.

First, the Chinese space launch was not broadcast live and was quite secretive. Pictures and video footage were shown after the fact. In the wiki URL listed in the previous paragraph, you might find it interesting to see things live regarding the Associated Press' article on September 25, "China space mission article hits Web before launch". Some friends told me that not broadcasting live was to prevent possible mishaps and embarrassments. I assume that one would have enough time to come up with a reasonable explanation if any accidents happened. I suppose that more transparency will come later when the Chinese perfect the space mission projects some more. The fortunate part is that the spacewalk was broadcast live, although no one knew for sure until the very last minute. As far as I know, all US launches in the past were broadcast live. Once people got bored with the space program, the broadcasts were on lesser-known channels.

The second striking difference to me is that the operation is very much a military one, as opposed to a civilian or quasi-civilian operation - from the selection of the astronauts, the briefing and debriefing, and the homecoming ceremony. Supposedly, the astronauts were to be quarantined for two weeks for fear of viral or bacterial infections reported in the earlier news. Yet, they were paraded through part of the city in open-air caravan after they returned to Beijing Xi-Jiao military airport. Contradictions and inconsistencies are everywhere in China. You have to live with it.

It is my view that the Chinese space station and space shuttle projects are barely economically justifiable, other than from the political and military vantage points. The transfer of technology from space research to the improvement of people's daily lives is not easy to see. With the current infrastructure, I have serious doubts on how this can take place quickly without reasonable transparency and civilian counterparts in the development and transfer of space technology. Lot of work has to be done to make space station and space shuttle projects economically viable.

On a more serious note, I do think that the moon project is very questionable economically other than to show off an ego of a nation or a party. I recall that many physicists were out driving cabs in Houston in the early 1970's after the moon landing project was over. Economically, there were no foreseeable benefits to continue on any project focusing on the moon itself.

During the cold war, the moon project was an important and visible milestone for the space race between the US and the USSR. It was probably essential to win the race for the US, otherwise we probably would have a Big Brother watching over us like that of "Nineteen Eighty-Four" by George Orwell. Some felt that the space race caused a serious drain economically both in the US and in the USSR.