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WASHINGTON, July 2 (AFP) - Pioneering scientists and academics pressed for tough legislation Sunday to protect the public from discrimination based on their genes while expressing misgivings about the potential for abuse of landmark genetic research. Researchers, who in late June announced they had produced a working map of the human genome, said they shared the concern of experts in bioethics who depicted discrimination based on genes as the great social issue of the 21st century. David Magnus, a bioethics professor at the University of Pennsylvania, told Fox News Sunday that insurance firms, employers and others would be seeking to capitalize on the new strides made in genetic research. "We are in a dangerous area where employers may want to do genetic testing," he said. "There's going to be a lot of information out there and I think we need to be concerned to make sure that we have safeguards so that people are not discriminated against." Last week researchers at the publicly funded Human Genome Project announced they had produced a rough map of the humane genome. On the same day, Celera Genomics, a private US firm, also announced it had cracked the genome, which contains all the chemical information needed to produce a human being. Craig Venter, the head of Celera Genomics, said he saw genetic discrimination as a serious danger and demanded that the US Congress take action. "I think that the biggest issue we are facing is the potential for genetic discrimination," he said on NBC's Meet The Press. "If we are not given protection by Congress from people using this information against all of us, the real breakthroughs that are happening in our scientific labs right now will not benefit the American public in terms of new treatment for cancers and other diseases." Fears that only the rich will benefit from genetic research were also aired, amid a rush by private firms to patent genes as intellectual property. "We may see a future in which the only people who are bald or fat are people who are impoverished, and the creation of a genetic underclass," said Magnus. Thousands of genes have already been patented, and dozens more requests for patents are pending. Francis Collins, head of the Human Genome Project, said it should be tougher for firms to obtain gene patents but defended their right to do so. Specifically, he said that it was highly expensive for specialized firms to produce drugs from genetic research and without patenting, it would be impractical and was unlikely to be carried out, thus depriving the public of vast health benefits. "If you have something that is going to benefit the public but that is only going to be brought to the market with a major investment by a biotechnology or pharmaceutical company, we, the public, need that investment to happen and intellectual property is one of the ways to ensure that it does," he said. |
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