quotations about genetic engineering
There is no such thing as offensive and defensive technology when it comes to DNA research. The manipulation of genes can be used for either purpose.
MICHIO KAKU
Physics of the Future
Even minor tampering with nature is apt to bring serious consequences, as did the introduction of a single chemical (DDT). Genetic engineering is tampering on a monumental scale, and nature will surely exact a heavy toll for this trespass.
EVA NOVOTNY
attributed, Environmental Biotechnology: A Biosystems Approach
Genetic engineering has never been about saving the world, it's about controlling the world.
VANDANA SHIVA
attributed, GrowTest
We do 'custom-tailor' mice. We view them as the canvas upon which we do these genetic transplantations.
HOWARD B. ROSEN
"Biomedical Researchers Scurry to Make Genetically Altered Mice", San Jose Mercury News, February 8, 1993
In the twenty-first century, genetic engineering will do more than merely eliminate Siamese twins and alligator-skinned people. It will make it hard to find a person with even a slight overbite or a large nose. I can see that future and it makes me shudder.
LES MARTIN
Humbug
When one adopts a theological perspective, one can certainly understand the qualms that religious leaders might have about genetic engineering. The Judaeo-Christian tradition has been staunch in its belief that God created living things "each according to its own kind," with the clear implication that species are fixed, immutable, and clearly separated from one another. Nineteenth-century and contemporary opposition by religious factions to Darwin and Darwin's notion of the origin and flux of species illustrates the significance placed upon fixed kinds of religious groups. For humans to meddle with species, to possibly create new species, to blur the lines between species, and, indeed, as Darwin did, to argue that humans and animals are continuous, is to erode the special place of humans and to trade comfortable predictability and order for uncertainty.
BERNARD E. ROLLIN
The Frankenstein Syndrome