"O brave new world, that has such people in it … "
- William Shakespeare, The Tempest, quoted by Aldous Huxley
Opponents of human genetic engineering spoke forcefully at a workshop at San Diego City College June 24 as part of the Biojustice/Beyond Biodevastation V event. Among the topics they discussed were the strong forces pushing society towards acceptance of human cloning and "designer" reproduction, the possibility of a future of genetic apartheid and the extent to which genetic engineering might combine with long-established prejudices to eliminate people of color and people with disabilities from the future human gene pool.
"When I started doing this work, my daughter was four and I was at a loss to explain human cloning to her," Dr. Marcy Darnovsky of the Exploratory Initiative on the New Human Genetic Technologies told a workshop on human genetic engineering at San Diego City College as part of the Biojustice/Beyond Biodevastation V events in San Diego June 24. "I finally said, 'You know, when I give you a quarter for a gumball and you have to take what...