Biotech juggernaut : hope, hype, and hidden agendas of entrepreneurial bioscience

__Biotech Juggernaut: Hope, Hype, and Hidden Agendas of Entrepreneurial BioScience__ relates the intensifying effort of bioentrepreneurs to apply genetic engineering technologies to the human species and to extend the commercial reach of synthetic biology or "extreme genetic engineering." In 1980, legal developments concerning patenting laws transformed scientific researchers into bioentrepreneurs. Often motivated to create profit-driven biotech start-up companies or to serve on their advisory boards, university researchers now commonly operate under serious conflicts of interest. These conflicts stand in the way of giving full consideration to the social and ethical consequences of the technologies they seek to develop. Too often, bioentrepreneurs have worked to obscure how these technologies could alter human evolution and to hide the social costs of keeping on this path. Tracing the rise and cultural politics of biotechnology from a critical perspective, __Biotech Juggernaut__ aims to correct the informational imbalance between producers of biotechnologies on the one hand, and the intended consumers of these technologies and general society, on the other. It explains how the converging vectors of economic, political, social, and cultural elements driving biotechnology’s swift advance constitutes a juggernaut. It concludes with a reflection on whether it is possible for an informed public to halt what appears to be a runaway force. Cover 1 Half Title 2 Praise 3 Title Page 4 Copyright Page 5 Dedication 6 Table of Contents 8 Acknowledgments 9 Prologue: A Shared Encounter 11 References 13 Chapter 1: Introduction: The Biotech Juggernaut 14 The Rise of the Biotech Industry 15 Ethics, Dissent, and the Dream of Responsible Science 16 The Specter of Eugenics 17 Technological Pragmatism Replaces Moral Concern 20 The Jesse Gelsinger Story: The Human Cost of Hyped Technology 21 The Return of Gene Therapy 23 The Rise of Entrepreneurial Biology: Diamond v. Chakrabarty and the Bayh-Dole Act 25 Commerce Eclipsing Criticism 29 What Is to Come (in this Book?; in the Future?) 30 Notes 33 Sources Consulted for Chapter 1 34 Chapter 2: The Dawn of GM Humans 38 The Gene Bubble 40 The New Developmental Biology and Dreams of a Scientific Eugenics 44 Human Modification – for Better or Worse 55 Sources Consulted for Chapter 2 56 Chapter 3: California Cloning: The Campaign 60 Clouding Issues at the Origin of CIRM 62 Enter California 67 Notes 81 Sources Consulted for Chapter 3 82 Chapter 4: California Cloning: The Aftermath 86 Conflicts of Interest in the Running of CIRM 88 The Egg Wars 92 Notes 102 Sources Consulted for Chapter 4 103 Chapter 5: Synthetic Biology: Extreme Genetic Engineering 109 The Politics of Synthetic Biology 118 Coda 125 Notes 125 Sources Consulted for Chapter 5 125 Chapter 6: The Road to Gattaca 129 Paving the Road to Gattaca 132 Signposts Ignored: The Fallacy of Genetic Determinism 137 Misdirecting Signposts on the Road to Gattaca 139 Avoiding Gattaca? 152 Notes 159 Sources Consulted for Chapter 6 159 Chapter 7: Concluding Reflections 165 Sources Consulted for Chapter 7 170 Appendices 171 Appendix A: Position Paper on Human Germ Line Manipulation 172 Appendix B: Memo to CIRM Standards Working Group Challenging CIRM’s 2013 Move to Change Egg Donation Reimbursement Policy 179 Appendix C: Testimony by Sindy Wei, MD to the California Senate Health Committee re AB 926 185 Appendix D: Testimony by Jennifer Schneider, MD to the California Senate Health Committee re AB 926 187 Appendix E: Testimony of Raquel Cool, Co-Founder, We Are Egg Donors, in Opposition To AB 2531 189 Appendix F: Email to SFSU Faculty from UCSF Center for Reproductive Health, September 21, 2017 190 Appendix G: Open Letter to President’s Bioethics Commission from Fifty-Eight Civil Society Groups, December 16, 2010 191 Appendix H: Civil Society Letter to East Bay City Councils, 2011 199 Appendix I: List of Civil Society Organizations Concerning Emerging Biotechnologies 202 Glossary 204 List of Abbreviations and Terms 204 Index 209 Tracing the rise and cultural politics of biotechnology from a critical perspective, Biotech Juggernaut examines the intensifying effort of bioentrepreneurs to apply genetic engineering technologies to the human species. It explains how converging vectors of economic, politic, social, and cultural elements are driving biotechnology's swift advance.