Secretive artist Banksy unveils his new work - the 'Scar of Bethlehem'.
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Saturday, December 21, 2019
A Flyer from the CLAC, the IWW and Montreal Antifascist
Submitted by MattLeGeek on Sun, 09/29/2019 - 22:18
1. GOVERNMENTS WON’T SAVE US
Those who benefit from poisoning the land and exploiting people you care about won’t be reformed. They’ll make it seem like they hear your voices and occasionally put on grand spectacles to temporarily appease your anger. They’ll encourage you to channel your anxiety into pointless practices that only reinforce individualism. So while some of us compete to take shorter showers or to reduce our trash output, government officials, universities, and corporations shamelessly invest in more pipelines, host uncritical academic conferences, or fly jets to fancy meetings where empty promises are made.
The impact of human emissions of greenhouse gases on climate has been known since the late 19th century. The view that carbon dioxide affects global warming has been widespread since the 70s. Since the 80s and 90s, observations and computer models have overwhelmingly pointed to human-made activities as important factors in climate change. It’s been more than 30 years since the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was created to compile information and advise world governments on how to minimize the anthropogenic (human-induced) climate change that has already claimed innumerable human lives and caused the extinction of many other animal species. This same panel now says we only have 10 years left before we reach a point of no return towards the death of this planet. Our countries are consuming the bulk of the planet’s resources. Yet here we are, asking for the same colonial governments and political class that put us in this mess to ban plastic straws and increase carbon taxes. We have been begging them for decades now. It’s time we start taking power ourselves.
2. CAPITALISM AND THE CLIMATE CRISIS
Capitalism is a socioeconomic and political system under which a privileged few own what the rest of us need to survive. That means the worth of sentient beings and plants is based on their ability to generate wealth. It’s the idea that land, workplaces, trees, animals, housing, and water, are to be owned privately by individuals or corporations, which gives them power to exploit these things however they want, regardless of our concerns, needs, and well-being. This economic system is why corporations are free to build fossil fuel infrastructures on unceded Indigenous land as governments use militarized police to suppress any form of resistance.
To exist, capitalism must uphold hierarchy, power, and obedience. That’s why your acts of rebellion are framed differently than their acts of systemic violence (e.g. stealing food from Walmart vs stealing land from Indigenous peoples). Our efforts towards a better future are meaningless without a radical departure from the system that made violence and destruction the normal (and legal) state of affairs.
3. COLONIALISM, RACISM, AND DESTRUCTION
To be green is to also to oppose colonialism and racism. Both of these things have everything to do with the climate crisis.
Atmospheric pollution can’t be calculated without taking into account past and present colonial realities. Our understanding of how different countries contribute to climate change must take into account historical greenhouse gas emissions, and most importantly, who profits from the destruction. Industries and empires have been built on the labor of Black and Indigenous people and other people of color. Canadian and American companies murder land defenders for minerals in Latin America and Africa, poison air and waterways in Asia, and put our trash on boats to be dumped far from our eyes.
Repeatedly in Canadian history, ecological devastation has been used as an intentional weapon against Indigenous peoples. Overhunting of bison by settlers led to famine in the Prairies in the 19th century, which was consciously encouraged by the Canadian government under John A. Macdonald as a tool of genocide to “clear the West.” Such practices continue to this day. Grassy Narrows is an Indigenous community near Ontario’s border with Manitoba; its water was contaminated by tons of mercury dumped into its water system by an upstream paper mill. One study estimated that 90 per cent of the population suffers from some degree of mercury poisoning, which can cause everything from cognitive impairments to hearing loss and emotional changes. The heavy metal can be passed from mothers to babies they carry, making it a problem that lasts generations. This is the legacy of Canadian colonialism and genocide; for many people the ecological catastrophe is already centuries old.
In so many ways, the most oppressed always pay the price for Western lifestyles and the out-of-control growth that accompanies them. Droughts, floods, and famines, are increasingly common and displaced people need new places to call home. Thus, as we fight climate change, we must also fight the system of borders that values some lives above others. We must fight the police entering migrants’ homes in the middle of the night to take parents away. We must fight the construction of a migrant prison in Laval that has kids growing up behind bars. We must fight against oil wars that leave entire countries destroyed. We must fight white-supremacy whether it takes the form of neo-fascist militias, conservative columnists, or colonial states claiming sovereignty over Indigenous land. Ultimately, we must also confront anyone who accepts any of this is without feeling profound anger. We can’t allow the most privileged people on this planet to use terms like « overpopulation » or « migrant crisis » because they are too scared and selfish to stand up to real perpetrators of the destruction of our world.
4. RESIST SCAPEGOATING AND THE FAR RIGHT
Certain groups are taking advantage of the catastrophes taking place to put their own hateful and nightmarish ideas into practice.
Following hurricane Katrina that devastated New Orleans in 2005, white supremacist militias took advantage of the disaster to murder random Black people they found trying to survive the floods. More recently, in 2019 in both Christchurch, New Zealand, and El Paso, Texas, neo-nazi gunmen committed massacres, killing dozens of people of color, in attacks which they explicitly framed as being to “save the environment.” All over the world, many people in the rich nations which are creating the most ecological damage are demanding tighter border controls and restrictions on immigration, often citing the need to protect natural resources. At the same time, some racists suggest that there are too many people in the world and target racialized people and people in the Global South with coercive “population control” measures. Here in Quebec, members of far right anti-immigrant groups have sometimes found themselves welcomed in environmentalist spaces and mobilizations, while the concerns of people of color and anti-racists have been simply brushed aside.
This legacy of eco-fascism must be confronted, otherwise the movement to save the planet could very easily find itself manipulated and turned into an instrument to oppress and do violence to those already most directly harmed by the catastrophes capitalism has unleashed.
5. WHAT WE CAN DO!
- Reject legality, especially when laws are made by colonial states (e.g. Canada, Quebec) unrecognized by the first inhabitants of the land.
- Listen to and make space for Indigenous voices in the struggle against the colonial and capitalist destruction of ecosystems.
- Recognize when our struggles are being co-opted by political parties or companies to amass sympathy and capital.
- Avoid political parties, non-profits, or anyone pretending to fight domination while reproducing power hierarchies.
- Learn about alternative (anarchist, communist, feminist, anticolonial) ways of organizing social life.
- Attack the symbols of capitalist power: banks, mining companies and multinational corporations.
- Make the fight against all forms of oppression an active part of your militancy and do your part to ensure the burden of dealing with uncomfortable realities linked to climate change don’t fall on the shoulders of those patriarchy deems responsible for the role of care.
- Practice consensual decision-making and cultivate consensual relationships.
- Get informed, end isolation by finding accomplices within your communities, and build networks of resistance with others who are willing to stand up to power.
- Only take calculated risks and practice security culture.
- Oh and obviously if we’re going to get arrested, let’s make it worth it.
This flyer was written and is distributed on unceded Indigenous land and a gathering place known to he Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk) Nation as Tiohtiá:ke (Montreal).
OTHER GROUPS AND RESOURCES OF INTEREST
- Food Against Fascism - foodagainstfascism.org/
- Solidarity Across Borders - solidarityacrossborders.org/
- Jeunes Socialistes pour le Pouvoir Populaire - JSPP - pouvoirpopulaire.wordpress.com/
- Montreal counter-information - mtlcounterinfo.org/
- Résistance Montréal - resistancemontreal.org/
- Contrepoints media - contrepoints.media/
- SubMedia - sub.media/
- COBP - cobp.resist.ca/
- Bibliothèque Dira - 2035 Saint-Laurent - bibliothequedira.wordpress.com/
- Librairie l’Insoumise - 2033 Saint-Laurent - insoumise.wordpress.com/
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Immune mystery solved in mice points to better protection from rotavirus in humans
ANIMAL EXPERIMENTATION 
Researchers at the University of Toronto have discovered how a brief disruption to a molecular pathway in the guts of mice before they are born can compromise adult immunity to a common and often deadly intestinal virus.
The researchers found that in utero inhibition of molecular signalling in the 'lymphotoxin pathway,' long known as important in the development of the immune system, prevented a robust antibody response in adult mice to rotavirus—which in humans causes an estimated 215,000 deaths annually, mostly in the developing world.
The researchers found that in utero inhibition of molecular signalling in the 'lymphotoxin pathway,' long known as important in the development of the immune system, prevented a robust antibody response in adult mice to rotavirus—which in humans causes an estimated 215,000 deaths annually, mostly in the developing world.
That early disruption limits the ability of the immune system to later trigger and generate production of Immunoglobulin A (IgA) antibodies, the researchers showed. It also interferes with the nature and function of cells in the gut that support the antibody response, called mesenteric lymph node stromal cells.
"It was surprising that these non-immune stromal cells were so important to the immune response," says Jennifer Gommerman, a professor of Immunology at U of T and principal investigator on the study. "It turns out that stromal cells affect the ability of immune B cells to produce IgA that neutralizes rotavirus. We're just beginning to understand the influence these stromal cells can have."
The journal Science Immunology published the study today.
Gommerman says the findings highlight the growing importance of research on the environment in which immune cells function. "We typically think of a lymph node as just a bag of lymphocytes, but there is also this supporting structure that clearly has an active role in shaping immunity."
The study's first author, postdoctoral fellow Conglei Li, identified a broad subset of stromal cells that affect the immune response to rotavirus. But the key players are likely a subset of that subset, Gommerman says. New technology known as single-cell RNA sequencing should soon enable researchers to identify many more of those cells, she adds.
That work could in turn lead to a better understanding of the genetic and environmental factors that may undermine immunity to rotavirus in the developing world, where rotavirus vaccines are much less effective than in high-resource settings.
Gommerman says that while several dysfunctions in the immune system likely contribute to reduced immunity to rotavirus in low-income countries, the current study offers a hint that prevention may be possible.
"The thinking would be that if you're pregnant in a resource-depleted area, you may take a dietary supplement at a specific point to ensure proper development of tissues that support immunity, and which enable a vaccine to be more effective," she says.
That kind of intervention is likely a long way off, says Gommerman, and replicating her results in human pregnancy presents obvious ethical problems. A more immediate next step for her lab is a collaborative study on IgA immune responses to other pathogens such as norovirus, another highly contagious disease.
A focus on single pathogens is useful in studies of IgA, says Gommerman, because so many factors can influence IgA response. "If you simplify the system of study, you get more predictable kinetics and can ask more discrete questions," she says. "We've made a contribution with that approach, on a question that has been percolating in several labs for years. That feels good."
In first, Switzerland shuts down ageing nuclear power station
One of four Swiss nuclear power stations was permanently disconnected Friday after 47 years of service, marking a first in Switzerland, as the country begins to gradually phase out atomic energy.
The decision to press the "off" button for good at the ageing Muhleberg plant in western Switzerland came amid soaring upkeep costs, and leaves the wealthy Alpine nation with three remaining nuclear plants in service.
"This is the first ever decommissioning of a power reactor in Switzerland," Swiss energy company BKW, the plant operator, said in a statement.
Since it was commissioned in November 1972, the plant had pumped out some 130 billion kilowatts per hour of electricity, which is enough to cover the current electrical consumption of the Swiss capital Bern's some one million inhabitants for more than a century, BKW said.
The shutdown of the plant officially began at 12:30 pm (1130 GMT), with the decisive button-push transmitted live on Swiss television.
But the full decommissioning process is expected to take around 15 years, with reuse of the site likely possible from 2034.
'Truly historic'
"This is truly a historic day," Swiss Environment Minister Simonetta Sommaruga told public broadcaster RTS earlier this week.
"The halt of the Muhleberg nuclear plant provides opportunities (for growth) of hydraulic energy and solar power," she said.
The plant had become the site of repeated protests amid a raging debate about nuclear safety in Switzerland that intensified following the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan.
In the aftermath of Fukushima, Switzerland announced plans to phase out nuclear energy and close its four plants, but no clear timeline has been set.
In early 2013, Muhlberg's operating license was even extended indefinitely, but just months later, its operator announced its plans to shut it down.
But the decision to close the plant, which has covered around five percent of Switzerland's energy consumption, was not politically motivated, BKW said.
"This was a business decision," the company told AFP in an email.
"If we had wanted to keep running our plant in the long term, we would have needed to invest heavily to respond to the technical requirements stipulated by the Swiss Nuclear Safety Inspectorate (ENSI)," it said.
But the closure does mark a clear first step in Switzerland's planned nuclear phase-out, leaving three plants in operation: Gosgen, Leibstadt and Beznau.
The latter houses two reactors, including one that turned 50 earlier this month, making it Europe's oldest functioning reactor and the third oldest in operation worldwide.
But despite their advanced age and Switzerland's stated ambition to gradually exit nuclear—which accounts for about a third of its current power generation—there are no immediate plans to shut down the remaining reactors.
In a popular vote three years ago, the Swiss rejected a call to speed up the phaseout of the plants by decommissioning all reactors over the age of 45.
As a result, the reactors can run for as long as ENSI deems them safe, or for as long as their operators find it financially viable to invest in the required safety upgrades.
Flickr is losing money, and CEO Don MacAskill is asking users of the photo sharing website for financial help
It's rare for a tech company to let people in on a dirty little secret. Many of them lose lots of money in their pursuit of customers.
So, it was refreshing to read this honest take on the fate of photo enthusiast website Flickr from the company's owner, Don MacAskill, on Thursday.
So, it was refreshing to read this honest take on the fate of photo enthusiast website Flickr from the company's owner, Don MacAskill, on Thursday.
His plea begins like this: "Flickr—the world's most-beloved, money-losing business—needs your help."
MacAskill wants people to sign up for $50 yearly subscriptions, which he's offering at holiday discounts of $36, and notes that the price will be going up next year.
In his note, he talks about how his family-run firm SmugMug two years ago bought Flickr from Yahoo, where it "was losing tens of millions of dollars a year." He says SmugMug rescued the company, and saved "tens of billions" of photos from being erased.
"So, we took a big risk, stepped in, and saved Flickr. Together, we created the world's largest photographer-focused community: A place where photographers can stand out and fit in."
How dire is the situation?
"It's not that dire," MacAskill tells U.S. TODAY. "But we do need to get more cash in the door."
He says less than 1% have signed up for the Pro accounts, and that if he could get just over 1%, that would be enough to keep the lights on.
More importantly, MacAskill says he wrote the letter to get honest feedback from customers on whether they're interested in Flickr continuing. "Is this the right way to go? We're about to find out."
Flickr is one of the earliest photo sharing sites, and was purchased by Yahoo in 2005, and it fell on hard times. Yahoo's new owner Verizon sold it to MacAskill in 2017.
But Flickr is still losing money. His solution to make it viable was to eliminate free accounts for storing thousands of photos and convert users into paying customers, at $50 yearly. That change began at the beginning of the year.
"It's losing a lot less money than it was," he says. "But it's not yet making enough....We cannot continue to operate it at a loss as we've been doing."
Flickr is home to over 100 million accounts and tens of billions of photos, he says, offering ad-free browsing and sharing that doesn't include social media tracking, like Facebook.
"We've gone to great lengths to optimize Flickr for cost savings wherever possible, but the increasing cost of operating this enormous community and continuing to invest in its future will require a small price increase early in the new year, so this is truly the very best time to upgrade your membership to Pro."
What happens if customers don't respond?
He says he has several backup plans. "This is a way to find out if we need to go to one of them."
Novartis eyes give-away of costly therapy for babies
Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis draw praise and criticism over its give-away
Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis is preparing to give away 100 doses of the world's most expensive drug, which treats a rare childhood disorder, but its recipient selection process has drawn criticism.
DECEMBER 20, 2019
The company announced this week that starting next month, its AveXis unit will begin distributing doses of Zolgensma, a one-time gene treatment for spinal muscular atrophy, also known as SMA.
The disease affects about 1 in 10,000 births, and which results in death or the need for permanent ventilation by the age of two in 90 percent of cases.
Novartis said a total of 100 doses—which cost around $2 million a pop—would go to eligible patients who are "under the age of two and are a citizen or legal resident of a country where the therapy is not yet approved by regulatory authorities."
The therapy was approved by US regulators in May, but approval in Europe and Japan for instance has been delayed until next year.
Novartis stressed in a statement that AveXis so far had only one facility licensed to produce the therapy, and that the company's first obligation was to provide it where it had been approved or was pending approval, as well as to clinical trials.
"We work diligently to get two more facilities licensed in 2020," it said.
As for the giveaways, Novartis said the intention was for a long-term commitment, with additional doses added to the program on a rolling six-month basis based on patient need and the expansion of capacity.
Novartis said AveXis had worked with an independent bioethics advisory committee to develop the programme, which it insisted was "anchored in principles of fairness, clinical need and global accessibility to best determine the equitable global distribution of a finite number of doses."
'Blinded selection'
It would not favour any child or country over another, it said.
A third party would administer "a blinded selection" every two weeks from a pool of patients proposed by their treating physicians who had been proven to be medically eligible, it said.
Novartis stressed that patients not picked in one selection round would automatically be submitted to the pool of candidates for the next selection as long as they remained medically eligible.
But the process drew criticism.
TreatSMA, a British advocacy group for the disorder, praised Novartis for trying to increase access, but it said it had "yet to be convinced that a health lottery is an appropriate way of meeting the unmet medical needs in this severe disease."
France's AFM-Telethon, which works to raise donations to find treatments for SMA and genetic disorders, went further, criticising the programme as a cruel "lottery" offered to "parents whose children afflicted with spinal muscular atrophy are condemned to death in the short term."
"How can one envisage even for a second that the life of a child can be the big prize in a lottery," the organisation asked on its website.
SEE https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=BIG+PHARMA
New studies show vaping illnesses tapering off
(HealthDay)—Even as the number of Americans hospitalized with a lung injury tied to vaping passed the 2,500 mark this week, new research confirms case counts are finally declining and vitamin E acetate remains the most likely culprit in the outbreak.
"The outbreak is getting better," Dr. Anne Schuchat, principal deputy director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said during a Friday media briefing. "While we continue to receive reports of newly diagnosed patients … the level of new cases is greatly reduced."
"The outbreak is getting better," Dr. Anne Schuchat, principal deputy director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said during a Friday media briefing. "While we continue to receive reports of newly diagnosed patients … the level of new cases is greatly reduced."
The latest statistics come in four reports from CDC researchers, published Friday in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report and the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM).
In one of the NEJM reports, vitamin E acetate was present in the lungs of 48 of 51 patients who were hospitalized with the vaping illness in 16 states.
"We are confident that vitamin E acetate is strongly linked to the [vaping illnesses] outbreak," Schuchat said. "Given all of these findings, including today's study, we can conclude that what I call the explosive outbreak of cases of [vaping illness] can be attributed to exposure to THC-containing vaping products that also contain vitamin E acetate."
But she added a caveat.
"I want to stress this does not mean there are not other substances in e-cigarette or vaping products that are capable of causing lung injury," she said.
Meanwhile, a total of 2,506 lung injury cases have been reported in all 50 states as of Dec. 19, the CDC said in a statement issued Thursday. Fifty-four of the patients have died.
In most cases, patients had previously used a vape product that included THC, the chemical in marijuana that provides a high.
For that reason, the "CDC and FDA recommend that people should not use THC-containing e-cigarette, or vaping, products, particularly from informal sources like friends, family, or in-person or online sellers," the CDC said.
No one brand has been singled out as the main culprit—in fact, "overall, 152 different THC-containing product brands were reported" as being used by patients prior to their illness, the agency noted.
Still, certain brands seem especially tied to the outbreak.
"Dank Vapes, a class of largely counterfeit THC-containing products of unknown origin, was the most commonly reported product brand used by patients nationwide," the CDC said, although this brand was most implicated in cases arising in the Northeast and South.
"TKO and Smart Cart brands were more commonly reported by patients in the West, and Rove was more common in the Midwest," the CDC said.
The illnesses that are affecting vapers can be sudden and severe. Symptoms include cough, shortness of breath and chest pains. Some patients have had so much trouble breathing that they wind up on oxygen, and in extreme cases are placed on a mechanical ventilator.
Evidence continues to build that vitamin E acetate, present in many "black market" vape products, especially those containing marijuana-derived THC, could be to blame.
Testing done on other common vape ingredients—things such as plant oils, petroleum distillates like mineral oil, MCT oil, and terpenes—have shown no role in the illness outbreak.
New forms of vaping-related illness are also emerging. On Nov. 25, doctors reported the first known case of a serious case of what's known as "popcorn" lung, observed in a Canadian teen. The illness involves inflammation and obstruction of the small airways in the lungs.
And a report emerged recently describing the case of a 49-year-old California woman who vaped marijuana and then came down with hard-metal pneumoconiosis or "cobalt lung." That's a form of pneumonia that's normally associated with exposure to hard metals in industrial settings.
SEE https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=VAPING
The number of vaping-related lung illness deaths reported by federal health authorities rose again this week to 56, up four from last week's total. The deaths occurred in 27 states.
SEE https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=VAPING
'Vast majority' of vaping illnesses blamed on vitamin E
Health officials now blame vitamin E acetate for the "vast majority" of cases in the U.S. outbreak of vaping illnesses and they say doctors should monitor patients more closely after they go home from the hospital.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced the updated advice Friday.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced the updated advice Friday.
And, in a related move Friday, authorities investigating how patients obtained possibly tainted vape products said they have shut down 44 websites advertising the sale of illicit vaping cartridges containing THC.
The new medical advice is based on a close look at about 3% of vaping illness patients who returned to the hospital after discharge and seven who died after hospital discharge.
The study suggests that vaping illnesses can get worse, even deadly, after patients leave the hospital and doctors should check on patients within two days of sending them home.
The two-day followup after hospital discharge is shorter than the previous recommendation of one to two weeks.
Compared to other vaping illness patients, those who went back to the hospital were more likely to have chronic conditions such as diabetes, heart disease or other breathing problems such as sleep apnea. Those who died after hospital discharge were more likely to be 50 or older.
The CDC also released new information that continues to point to a culprit: vitamin E acetate, a thickening agent that's been added to illicit THC vaping liquids. THC is the chemical in marijuana that makes users feel high.
A report published in the New England Journal of Medicine identified the substance in the lung fluid of 48 out of 51 vaping illness patients and did not find it in the lung fluid of healthy people. Vitamin E acetate also has been found in vaping product samples.
In the strongest language yet about what's caused the outbreak, Dr. Anne Schuchat of the CDC told reporters during a telephone briefing Friday that it is her "conclusion" that vitamin E acetate caused the illness in "the vast majority of patients."
The nation's outbreak of vaping-related lung injuries continues, but new cases are on the decline. More than 2,500 cases of vaping illness have been reported by all 50 states. There have been 54 deaths and more deaths are under investigation.
Interviews with patients and families led investigators to some of the websites that were shut down by the Food and Drug Administration and the Drug Enforcement Administration. The agencies did not announce any criminal charges.
The 44 website domains—with names including Stoners Marketplace and Anonymous Meds—now direct visitors to a message in red letters that says "This Site Has Been Seized."
Investigators have said they are not interested in taking action against individuals who use vaping products, and are focused instead on suppliers.
Some of the websites shut down were scam sites intended to collect money without ever mailing consumers any products, authorities said.
SEE https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=VAPING
Federal health officials made clear Friday that tainted THC vaping cartridges are considered the primary cause of a vaping lung injury that has killed 54 people and hospitalized more than 2,000 across the United States.
SEE https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=VAPING
'CRISPR babies': What does this mean for science and Canada?
In addition to the universal ethical condemnation of Dr. He Jiankui's CRISPR work involving human embryos, the birth of the twin girls has wider legal and policy implications for gene-editing research and its potential clinical translation. This commentary group the ethical critiques of human gene-editing into four broad categories:
- concerns about eugenics
- the health risks to children
- allegations of the failure of professional self-regulation
- a possible "chilling effect" on scientific research.
Knoppers and Kleiderman contend that we need a renewed conversation about the criminal law ban on basic research on human germline gene modification in Canada. Moreover, they contend that our current hybrid model of statutory law plus codes of ethics for the governance of emerging biotechnologies is generally inadequate; it should be complemented by models based on a human rights approach. Finally, they propose that basic research using germline modification should be permitted if scientific standards are followed for preclinical evidence and accuracy.
More information: Bartha Maria Knoppers et al. "CRISPR babies": What does this mean for science and Canada?, Canadian Medical Association Journal (2019). DOI: 10.1503/cmaj.181657
Journal information: Canadian Medical Association Journal
Biomedical law experts suggest it's time to expand the legal term for 'human'
A pair of biomedical law experts, one with McGill University the other Stanford University, are suggesting in a Policy Forum piece in the journal Science that it might be time to expand the legal term for "human." In their paper, Bartha Knoppers and Henry Greely argue that recent technological advances have come to blur the line between what is human and what is not, and thus, new terminology is needed.
Over the past few decades, scientists have been carrying out research in which human and non-human cells are mixed, resulting in tissue that could be classified as either human or non-human—grafting or transplanting organs or tissues from animals onto humans, for example, or growing organs in an animal for later transplantation into a human. Also, the development of the CRISPR gene-editing technology allows for changing the genome of a person into something that may not exist in nature.
Knoppers and Greely argue that such technology requires a new look at the word "human"—at least in a legal sense. They note that currently, there are many laws that apply only to humans or to human tissue, and in some cases, to the bodies of human beings after they die. They point out that it is only a matter of time before the term is challenged in a court case. Can it be argued that a monkey has the same legal rights as human beings if all of its organs (except, perhaps, its brain) have come from a human being? Or is a person still human and thus entitled to such rights if he or she is born with a partial brain with no consciousness and is kept alive by machines? To settle such matters in a legal sense, the authors suggest the legal system consider amending the term "human" by adding the word "substantially"—as in, the defendant is "substantially human"—for instance, where a robot with a human brain is on trial for committing a crime.
The authors note that the term already exists in a legal context—in copyright and data protection laws, for example. They further note that the phrase could help in legal proceedings—if a case involving the Chinese twins with edited DNA arose, for example, their lawyers could argue that they are substantially human, thereby assuring them of continued protection as human beings.
More information: "Biotechnologies nibbling at the legal 'human,'" Science (2019). science.sciencemag.org/cgi/doi … 1126/science.aaz5221
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