“The arguments in favour of therapeutic cloning, such as those in favour of human embryo experiments a decade ago, are a publicity stunt for the scientific establishment. Their purpose is to instil in the public mind several important messages. Firstly, that scientists must be very clever to conceive of such things. Secondly, that they are deeply compassionate and committed to making the world a better place. Thirdly, that they alone have the means to deliver human salvation. (As disease and suffering is abolished, the blind will see and the lame will walk.) And fourthly, for all these reasons, we should defer to their greater wisdom and knowledge……..and pay them large sums of money.” Dr James Le Fanu, Image News, March 2001

“The government has now backed a plan to allow the cloning of human beings. Not balls of cells, but unborn children, who are to be created and nurtured so as to provide stem cells for experiments in the course of which they will be killed. Public concern has been dismissed as merely an outbreak of irrational squeamishness. But instinctive moral repugnance is no more than the natural response to a crass violation of nature's laws.” Cardinal Thomas Winning, Sunday Telegraph, 20th August, 2000

“We can make living cells into tomorrow's pills.” Tom Okarma, President and CEO of Geron Corporation, a biotech company in Menlo Park, California

“Stephen Hawking has announced that we are ready to peep “into the mind of God”. The Nobel prize-winning physicist Leon Lederman tells us that we are very close to discovering the ultimate elementary particle - “the God particle” – which orchestrates the cosmic symphony. This discovery will reduce the laws of physics to a single equation that could be printed on a T-shirt. Soon the human genome will be number crunched, and from conception to death, the biochemistry of everything we are will be stored in the computer. We are thus very near to a grand synthesis, a Theory of Everything…. This triumphalist picture reveals more about our ignorance than what we have learnt.” Ziauddin Sardar “All That We Don't Know,” New Statesman, 6th March 2000

“In many fields there are certain things in vogue at a given time. Nearly everything published in high-energy physics, for example, is junk. It has nothing to do with reality - it's a whole castle of cards. Yet you are on safe ground if you publish a paper according to the currently accepted style. You will be published, especially if you make some curves and graphs that make it appear that you did some calculations. The fact that it is all a house of cards with very little reality to begin with is somehow ignored.” Lyn Trainor, Professor of Physics, Toronto University. Taken from 'How Much of Modern Physics is a Fraud?' Dec, 2000. www.2prestel.co.uk

“Advocates of the 'golden future' genome program insist that the research could lead to cures for disease, and that familial traits and/or hereditary human characteristics perceived as weaknesses could be 'bred out'. Breeding out human defects however raises a wide range of ethical questions. A report in the Washington Times described the case of an expectant couple who requested a diagnostic test from their Health Maintenance Organization to determine if their child would have a genetic abnormality. According to the report, they were told by officials that if they had the test done and a foetal defect was detected, they would be obligated to opt for abortion. If they refused, continued the report,…“not only would the HMO not pay for the test or provide healthcare for the child, it would also cap the benefits for their already existing child.” Baobab Press Vol 4, No 5, 1995. www.africa2000.com

“It would be to overestimate considerably the collective intelligence of scientists to suggest they have even the vaguest idea of how this information begins to translate into “who we are”. Geneticists must insist that what they are doing is important to guarantee the continuous flow of research funds. They endorse the image of the 'blueprint' because their claim to holding the key to deciphering this blueprint elevates their role in society to that of the shaman – the possessor of arcane knowledge that no-one else can understand. The reality is more prosaic. 'The DNA Sequence of Human Chromosome 22' is an extremely tedious document whose claims to profundity are unwarranted.” 'Stop all This Fuss About Our Genes.' New Statesman, 13th December 1999

The field of genetics can be described as 'A number of incredibly rich people who have achieved almost everything material in life, who now wish to fund research into understanding the fundamental building blocks of life itself, the mapping of the human genome.' Involved in this 'mapping' project are geneticists and researchers who intermittently construct various hexagonal and helical shaped theoretical models. These models or 'blueprints' are then converted into computer graphics and supported with largely indecipherable but highly convincing scientific narrative. The end product is then given the Hollywood polish, heralded as 'a genetic breakthrough' and beamed out to millions of viewers across the globe, the relative worth of said breakthroughs going largely unquestioned. Excerpted from World Without AIDS, Steven Ransom and Phillip Day, Credence Publications, June 2000

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