A Silent Biotechnology Race Lingers On

A Silent Biotechnology Race Lingers On
 December 16, 2013
Biotechnology may soon have the most profound impact on national security far greater than cybersecurity ever could. According to open news sources:

• In 1997, the first genetically modified human baby is born through in vitro fertilization techniques of Jacques Cohen, transplanting cytoplasm and mitochondrial DNA between different human embryos (one man and two women) in the US.

• In 2001, it is reported that some 30 genetically engineered healthy babies are born worldwide.

• Chinese scientists in 2003 crossed rabbit genes with a human embryo but destroyed them.

• In 2008, Nikica Zaninovic of Cornell, successfully introduced GFP (green florescent proteins) from a species of a Jellyfish into human embryos but destroyed them.

• In 2009 Professor Li Jianyuan clones human embryos in China with technique of donor cells injected into an egg.

• In 2011, China genetically engineered cows to produce human milk.

This year, BGI Shenzhen, China’s largest biotech firm, is collecting 2,000 genomes of the smartest people in the world and hoping to raise the intelligence of their society by at least five percent in the future. Other websites say they are not doing this for reasons they cite as being too difficult. But either way, they are buying up massive amounts of sequencing machinery and genome related industries which will be used to map genomes and potentially screen for more advanced genetic traits in the future.
Any modern state with biotechnological advantage in altering the DNA and gene expression of any organisms or an entire population will be the leader of the race. Unlike the Arms Race, or the Space Race, the Biotechnology/GMO Race is even more controversial. The real nasty illegal research is kept off the books and is isolated in secret locations by many governments around the world. Some are made public as a show of power and pride.
The Chinese advantage appears to be in quantity and data processing. They also have a lot more eggs and a lot less moral qualms (traditionally a fetus is not considered human at all until birth).
The race is just another type of espionage game as well. In this way China does well to steal America’s greatest research and thus may soon defeat the U.S. on all fronts: bioethics, quantity and quality of GM related techniques and technologies.
It is not just a political and military concern. A given state’s civilian population becomes slowly more tolerant of biotechnological advances over time—governments, industries and scientists are all pushing the boundaries in areas as diverse as fashion, food and fighting.
What if China develops the first superhuman solider or DNA/RNA targeting weapons? What should the U.S. response be when their people become suddenly smarter or stronger than ours? Or when their bioweapons can literally be put in the food and water supply and threaten the population’s DNA?
Will the U.S. have a choice at that point not to enter into the darker areas that purportedly remains sealed off from Western morality?
Bottom-line: pragmatic realism trumps bioethics in modern states