The Next Four Years, the Biotech Agenda, and the Human Future
The Next Four Years, the Biotech Agenda, and the Human Future
Thursday, December 9, 2004
The Graduate Center
City University of New York
Proshansky Auditorium
New York City
co-sponsored by
Center for Genetics and Society
The Graduate Center, CUNY
The Nation Institute
The New York Open Center
Demos
On December 9, 2004, over 400 New Yorkers gathered to hear five noted academics, authors and activists make the case that liberals and progressives need to support socially responsible control over the new human genetic technologies as a priority concern. Presentations were followed by lively discussion.
A report on the Symposium follows. It contains:
Introduction
Hosts
Speakers
Video
Photographs
Texts of Presentations
About the Co-Sponsors
Resources
Introduction
The new human biotechnologies pose some of the most controversial and divisive political challenges of our time. Although many applications promise new ways of preventing and curing disease, others encourage new forms of discrimination, racism, and exclusion. Still others could open the door to a high-tech consumer eugenics that could radically alter the nature of humanity and undermine the foundations of civil society. Meanwhile, the biotech industry has moved rapidly to frame public debate in its favor and build influence within the political parties. With the conclusion of the November elections, liberals and progressives need to consider deeply the implications of the new human biotechnologies for social justice, equality, and democracy.
Hosts
David Levine, Director, Center for Continuting Education, The Graduate Center, CUNY
Richard Hayes, Executive Director, Center for Genetics and Society - Moderator
Speakers
|
![]() http://www.genetics-and-society.org |
|
![]() |
![]() http://www.tufts.edu/~skrimsky |
|
![]() |
![]() http://www.nymc.edu/sanewman/ |
|
![]() |
|
|
![]() |
![]() http://www.slate.com |
Photographs
Images courtesy of Udo R Photography
Video
Watch part one and part two as broadcast on Manhattan Neighborhood Network. [QuickTime format, 60 kB/sec]. Thanks to Steve Zehentner for his production work.
Richard Hayes - introduction
Sheldon Krimsky
Dorothy Roberts
Will Saletan
Stuart Newman
Marcy Darnovsky
About the Cosponsors
The Center for Genetics and Society is a public affairs organization working to encourage responsible societal governance of the new human genetic technologies. The Center works in a context of support for the equitable provision of health technologies; for women's health and reproductive rights; for the protection of our children; for the rights of the disabled; and for precaution in the use of technologies that could alter the fundamental processes of the natural world.
http://www.genetics-and-society.org
The Graduate Center, City University of New York is the doctorate-granting institution for the City University of New York (CUNY), with over 4,000 students and 1,600 faculty in 30 doctoral programs in the humanities, social sciences and sciences. Their work is augmented by 28 research centers and institutes focused on areas of compelling social, civic, cultural, and scientific concerns.
http://www.gc.cuny.edu
The Nation Institute was founded in 1966 with a fundamental commitment to the values of free speech and open discourse. The Institute places particular importance on strengthening the independent press in the face of America's increasingly corporate-controlled flow of information, and through its programs the Institute promotes progressive values on a variety of media platforms.
http://www.nationinstitute.org
The New York Open Center is the largest urban holistic learning center in the United States. Founded in 1983, the Open Center presents more than 600 programs every year, including in-depth/ long-term trainings, conferences, lectures, performance and weekend workshops covering a wide range of holistic subjects, with attendance of over 15,000.
http://www.opencenter.org
Demos is a progressive research and advocacy organization dedicated to helping build a society where America can achieve its highest ideals. Demos believes that requires a democracy that is robust and inclusive, with high levels of electoral participation and civic engagement, and an economy where prosperity and opportunity are broadly shared and disparity is reduced.
http://www.demos-usa.org
Resources
To learn more about the issues being addressed at the symposium, please see the following resources.
Selected Texts by Symposium Speakers
Marcy Darnovsky
- "Cloning and Germline Intervention: Perspectives from the United States on Reproductive Technologies and Biomedicine," presentation given at the Within and Beyond Human Nature conference, Berlin, Germany (October 13, 2003)
Resources >> CGS>> Cloning and Germline Intervention - "Sex Selection Moves to Consumer Culture" Genetic Crossroads (August 20, 2003)
Sheldon Krimsky
- Melody Petersen, "A Conversation with Sheldon Krimsky: Uncoupling Campus and Company," The New York Times (September 23, 2003)
http://www.gene-watch.org/press/NYT-krimsky.html - "Can Scientists and Physicians Come to Grips with Conflicts of Interest?" Research USA (September 15, 2003) [PDF]
http://www.tufts.edu/~skrimsky/PDF/Research_USA.PDF
Stuart Newman
- "Averting the clone age: prospects and perils of human developmental gene manipulation, " Journal of Contemporary Health Law and Policy (Vol. 19, pp. 431-463, 2003) [PDF]
http://www.nymc.edu/sanewman/PDFs/
J.%20Cont.%20Health%20Law%20&%20Policy_Averting.pdf
Dorothy Roberts
- "Race and the New Reproduction," in Killing the Black Body: Race, Reproduction and the Meaning of Liberty (New York: Pantheon, 1997)
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/rt21/race/ROBERTS6.html
William Saletan
- "Revelation of the Nerds: The religion of stem-cell research," Slate (August 10, 2004) http://slate.msn.com/id/2104983/
- "Fetal positions" Mother Jones (May/June 1998)
http://www.motherjones.com/news/special_reports/1998/05/saletan.html
Audio
Hear author Bill McKibben and Marcy Darnovsky address the challenges of the new human biotechnologies, at the colloquium sponsored by the University of California Graduate School of Journalism (September 28, 2004) [MP3]
Hear Marcy Darnovsky and California State Senator Debra Ortiz debate the merits of the California stem cell initiative, Proposition 71, on KQED Forum hosted by Michael Krasny (October 7, 2004) [RealAudio]
Overview Documents
For a comprehensive overview of the social and political challenges raised by the new human biotechnologies, see the website of the Center for Genetics and Society.
For documents addressing the implications of human biotechnology by feminist and women's health leaders, see the website of the conference Gender & Justice in the Gene Age, held in May 2004 at the Ford Foundation.
http://www.gjga.org
For documents addressing the implications of these technologies for equality and democracy, see the website of the symposium Inequality, Democracy and the New Human Biotechnologies, held in July 2004 at the Century Foundation.
For documents by leaders from Asia, Africa, Europe, the Americas and elsewhere, see the website of the conference Within and Beyond the Limits of Human Nature, held in October 2003 in Berlin, Germany.
http://www.biopolitics-berlin2003.org
Electronic newsletter
For regular updates on important developments, subscribe to Genetic Crossroads, the email newsletter of the Center for Genetics and Society.
"The breadth of biotechnological interventions raises moral questions that are not simply difficult in the familiar sense but are of an altogether different kind..."
-Jurgen Habermas, The Future of Human Nature (2003)