Finders Keepers, Losers weepers.....

Readers,
In the novel "Next" by Michael Crichton, the book begins with the story of Frank Burnet who contracted an aggresive form of leukemia and underwent four years of intese treatment. He is later told that he needs to come back in for "testing" and is led to believe that the cancer has returned. He continues to attend these checkups for the next four years. He later learns that checkups were a pretext for researching the genetic basis of his successful response to treatment, and that the physician's had sold the rights in Frank's cells to BioGen, a biotechnology company. The book opens with Frank suing the University for unauthorized misuse of his cells unsuccessfully. The judge in the case rules that the cells were "waste" and that the university could dispose of as it wished.

The term emminent domain is defined as the inherent power of the state to seize a citizen'a private property, or seize a citizen's rights in property with due monetary compensation, but without the owner's consent. The property is taken either for government use or by delegation to third parties who will devote it to public or civic use or, in some cases, economic development.

So readers, do you see the government owning our bodies in the near future? Do you see them possibly utilizing "eminent domain" for the greater good of society? Can you think of a situation that you would support excercising eminent domain over another person and their body? What are your thoughts on this topic? Do share.

"Next"...Scared Straight

If you have never read Next by Michael Crichton, I suggest you do.

  "Is a loved one missing some body parts? Are blondes becoming extinct? Is everyone at your dinner table of the same species?" This is the opening of the book that serves not only as a delicious teaser, but prepares  you to enter the world that Crichton has masterfully weaved.  Flip a few pages and you are warned that "this book is fiction, except  for the parts that aren't." The book has several subplots but is primarily focused on the story of a four year old boy named Dave, who suffers from a fictious disease called Gandler-Kreukheim. Among his symptoms are excessive hairiness and a talent for climbing trees. Why? Because Dave is a transgenic creature, part human and part chimpanzee. He was created in a laboratory by a scientist who, in the course of research on autism, inserted his own genes into a chimpanzee embryo. The researcher hoped to create and then dissect a fetus, but things got a little out of hand.

As the book continues with the oddities, we are shown just what our world might come to. Girls given fertility drugs so that they may sell their eggs to the highest bidder, insurance companies dropping clients because of a gene found in relatives, (thanks to President Obama for preventing this with the new healthcare law), even criminals using genetic testing as a defense to prove that they carry a certain gene that predisposes them to crime.

As I dwelved further into the book I began to understand the aforementioned warning. Though the author has indeed created these fictitious events, many are replays of real events, greatly understating the book’s scary legitimacy.


Pick up a copy and read it for yourself. Just make sure it is during the daytime.

Old Mcdonald's Genetically Engineered and Sometimes Modified Farm..

A Belgian Blue giant cow, three times the size of ordinary cattle, reared without fat to produce gallons of milk.

A Canadian company has produced goats that are genetically modified to be part spider.

The genetic modification causes these spider goats to produce spider silk protein in their milk that is collected, purified and spun into super strong fibers. These fibers are apparently more durable than Kevlar, more stretchable than nylon, and stronger than steel. This company sees nothing wrong with messing with nature to harvest a substance that has very valuable industrial and military applications.

   Have questions about the effects of genetically engineering and modifying animals? Let this picture be a warning to us all !

Genectically Modified Organisms, Science or Playing God?

A genetically modified organism or genetically engineered organism is an organism whose genetic material has been altered using genetic engineering techniques. These techniques, generally known as recombinant DNA technology, use DNA molecules from different sources, which are combined into one molecule to create a new set of genes. This DNA is then transferred into an organism, giving it modified or novel genes. Transgenic organisms, a subset of GMOs, are organisms which have inserted DNA that originated in a different species.

Do you agree with genetically modifying/genetically engineering organisms/animals? How is it possibly harmful/helpful to modern science? What might be some of the benefits or dangers of this practice?