http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=787579&thesection=news&thesubsection=general
23.01.2002
Scientists at the state-owned AgResearch
Institute want to move ahead of the law and insert human genes into cows
to find a treatment for multiple sclerosis.
The institute has been accused of
"jumping the gun" by applying before laws have been drafted to consider
the ethical implications.
It wants to do a series of experiments,
each involving "several tens" of cows, in a "containment paddock" at Ruakura,
near Hamilton.
It hopes to breed cows whose milk
will contain proteins that can be extracted to help treat multiple sclerosis,
and eventually other diseases.
Green Party co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons
called on the Government last night to defer the application until it sets
up a bioethics council, as recommended by the Royal Commission on Genetic
Modification last year.
"There isn't even draft legislation
to set up this council. AgResearch is rather jumping the gun."
The application is being notified
in daily newspapers today by the Environmental Risk Management Authority
(Erma).
Submissions close on March 7.
AgResearch's general manager of science,
Dr Paul Atkinson, said the application would allow continuation of research
started 18 months ago to breed cows whose milk contains the human myelin
protein.
The new breeding programme, if approved,
will extend to other proteins, targeting a variety of diseases.
It is expected to take three to four
years, and possibly up to 10.
A consultant to the Ngati Wairere
people who are the tangata whenua of Ruakura, Maree Pene, said her tribe
had been represented on a monitoring group set up by AgResearch last month,
but still opposed the application because it involved "mixing of whakapapa
[blood lines]".
The AgResearch application, posted
on Erma's website last night, "recognises that the risk to the relationship
of Maori [particularly Ngati Wairere] with their taonga [treasures] is
likely to be significant".
But the application concludes: "AgResearch
does not believe that this risk outweighs the benefits of the research."
http://nzherald.co.nz/ge
©Copyright 2002, New Zealand
Herald
By SIMON COLLINS
Report of the Royal Commission on
Genetic Modification