Scientists guilty of 'hyping' benefits of gene research
By The Independent,
The Independent (UK)
| 09. 05. 2005
The leading fertility scientist Lord Winston has hit out at senior scientists, including two Nobel laureates, for making exaggerated claims about the supposed benefits of scientific research, warning they could trigger a public backlash.
Speaking on the eve of his presidential address to the annual meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science at Trinity College, Dublin, the former head of fertility medicine at the Hammersmith Hospital in London also criticised the "hype" over stem cells. He said stem cells are unlikely to be of much use for many years.
Lord Winston called on his colleagues to use more moderate language when describing scientific breakthroughs, singling out in his speech senior scientists and naming two Nobel laureates for making dangerously arrogant remarks.
"James Watson's assertion about the value of tampering with the human germ-line are a pretty good example," he said. Professor Watson, who won a Nobel prize for discovering the DNA double helix with Francis Crick, has extolled the possibility of altering the genes of germ-line sperm or egg cells to eradicate inherited diseases.
Lord Winston also...
Related Articles
The Center for Genetics and Society is delighted to recommend the current edition of GMWatch Review – Number 589. UK-based GMWatch, a long-standing ally, was founded in 1998 by Jonathan Matthews as an independent organization seeking to counter the enormous corporate political power and propaganda of the GMO industry and its supporters. Matthews and Claire Robinson are its directors and managing editors.
CGS works to ensure that social justice, equity, human rights, and democratic governance are front...
If you’ve been online or caught the news in the past few weeks, you’ve probably come across Sydney Sweeney, her “great genes jeans,” and much debate over whether they reflect a resurgence of eugenics in American politics and culture.
In case you missed it, here’s what happened. At the end of July, US-based clothing company American Eagle released a new ad campaign. In one ad, Sweeney breathily recites the following, while lying back to zip up her jeans:
Genes are...
By Ryan Cross, Endpoints News | 08.19.2025
Human eggs are incredibly rare cells. The ovary typically produces only 400 mature eggs across a woman’s life. But biologists in George Church’s lab at Harvard University — a group that’s never content with nature’s limits — just got a...
By Staff, National Women's Law Center | 08.13.2025
INTRODUCTION
Baby bonuses. Motherhood medals. Fertility tracking. You may have heard of these policy proposals as solutions from the Trump administration to help encourage women to have more children.
Besides falling short of ensuring that people have what they need...
