Biotechnology extends humanity’s reach over the forces of nature as no technology in history has ever done. Bioengineers are now manipulating life forms in much the same way as the engineers of the Industrial Revolution were able to separate, collect, utilize, and exploit inanimate materials. Just as previous generations manipulated plastics and metals into the machines and products of the Industrial Age, we are now manipulating and indeed transferring living materials into the new commodities of the global age of biotechnology. 

With current technology, is becoming possible to snip, insert, recombine, edit and program genetic material, the very blueprint of life. Using these techniques, the new life-engineers are rearranging the genetic structures of the living world crossing and intermixing species at will to create thousands of novel microbes, plants, and animals. Recent examples include pigs engineered with human growth genes to increase their size; tomatoes engineered with flounder genes to resist cold temperatures; salmon with cattle growth genes spliced in to increase their size; tobacco planets engineered with the fluorescent gene of fireflies to make them glow at night; and laboratory mice encoded with the AIDS virus as part of their permanent genetic makeup.

Biotechnologists are also able to screen for and isolate valuable genetic material from virtually any living organism. They then can clone industrial amounts of valuable DNA, hormones, enzymes, and other biochemicals. Recent advances now allow the cloning of innumerable "xerox" copies of whole organisms, including higher mammals.

With these new capabilities, genetic engineering represents the unthinkable tool in the manipulation of of forms. For the first time, scientists have the potential of becoming the architects of life itself, the initiators of an ersatz technological evolution designed to create new species of microbes, plants, and animals that are more profitable to enterprises involved in agriculture, industry, biomass energy production, and research.

The raw material for this new enterprise is genetic resources. Just as the powers of the Industrial Age colonized the world in search of minerals and fossil fuels, the biocolonizers are now in search of new biological materials that can be transformed into profitable products through genetic engineering.

The new bio-prospectors know where to find the biodiversity they need. According to the World Resources Institute, more than half the world’s plant and animal species live in the rain forests of the Third World --and nowhere else on Earth. The nonindustrialized world’s coastal regions add millions more species to those already available to the new engineers of life. The Third World is now witnessing a "gene rush," as governments and multinational corporations aggressively scour forests and coasts in search of the new genetic gold. The human body is not immune from the reaches of the bio-prospectors. Organ and fetal transplantation, reproductive technology, and genetic manipulation of blood and cells have made body parts, including blood, organs, cells, and genes, extremely valuable. The collection and sale of human parts is becoming a major worldwide industry.

Many predict that the twenty-first century will become the age of biotechnology. Biocolonizing companies and governments know that the economic and political entities that control the genetic resources of the planet may well exercise decisive power over the world economy in coming decades. However, the new drive for international hegemony in the engineering and marketing of life represents an extraordinary threat to the earth’s fragile ecosystems and to those living in them. Moreover, embarking on the long journey in with corporations and governments eventually become the brokers of the blueprints of life raises some of the most disturbing and important questions ever to face humanity: Do scientists and corporations have the right to alter the genetic code of life forms at will? should we alter the genetic structure of the entire living kingdom in the name of utility and profit? Is there a limit to the number or type of human genes that should be allowed to be engineered into the animals? Should the genetic integrity of the biotic community be preserved? Is there something sacred about life, or should life forms, including the human body and its parts, be viewed simply as commodities in the new bio-tech marketplace? Is the genetic makeup of all living things the common heritage of all, or can it be appropriated by corporations and governments?

The companies, governments, and scientists at the forefront of the biorevolution --goaded by scientific curiosity or profit-- have avoided virtually any discussion of the extraordinary implications of their actions. Further, the so-called "bioethicists" employed by various government and educational institutions appear incapable of saying no to any advance in the manipulation and sale of life. They seem intent on seeing the unthinkable become the debatable, the debatable become the justifiable, and the justifiable become the routine. While virtually all polls show that the international public is opposed to much of the biotechnology and biocolonization, this has not yet let to a major biodemocracy movement that demands public participation and decision making in these issues. Without such a movement, the international biotechnology revolution, with all of its unprecedented environmental and ethical implications, will remain totally uncontrolled. ....

The New Biodemocracy.

On March 1, 1995, after six years of debate, the European Parliament (EP) rejected a European Union directive that would have allowed the patenting of virtually all life forms. The historic vote was a significant blow to life patenting in Europe and represents a surprise victory for "biodemocracy" and for ethics over profit. The action of the EP in rejecting life patents reflects the growing opposition that culminated in numerous street demonstrations in Brussels prior to the vote. For years, polls in Europe have shown overwhelming opposition to life patenting, especially animal and human materials patenting.

The U.S. Congress has taken no action against the engineering or patenting of life. However, polls of Americans show a high resistance to biotechnology. A 1992 USDA survey showed that 90 percent of those polled opposed the insertion of animal genes into plants; 60 percent opposed the insertion of foreign genes into animals, and over fifty percent felt that using biotechnology to change animals was "morally wrong."

About 80 percent felt that the public should have a grater voice in biotechnology decisions, believing that "citizens have too little to say about whether or not biotechnology should be used." This is a clear statement in favor of a new biodemocracy.

Biodemocracy requires that nation-states follow the example of the European Parliament and reject the patenting of life in all forms. It also requires governments and transnational corporations to stop biocolonizing the earth’s genetic resources. In addition, biodemocracy requires the immediate cessation both of the Human Genome Diversity Project and similar initiatives and of the sordid international trafficking in blood and human organs. Finally, biodemocracy would lead to a moratorium on the engineering of the permanent genetic code of plants and animals. This work is potentially catastrophic for the environment and is profoundly unethical. Clearly, a mass movement for biodemocracy is needed if the international drive toward the engineering and patenting of life is to be halted. Biodemocracy involves respecting the collective will both to restrict biotechnology and to ban the patenting of life. It also involves the key ethical insight that al life forms have intrinsic value and genetic integrity and cannot be used as raw material for new commodities on the global market.

(*)Kimbrell is an activist attorney in Washington, D.C., founder and president of the International Center for Technology Assessment and the Jacques Ellul Society.

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