Copyright © 1995-1998 NLThomas
All Rights Reserved

OPEN LETTER TO

"THE FIRST INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON DNA SAMPLING"

The collection, exchange, and commercialization of human genes is not a possibility or a proposal, but a reality. In the process of more than a decade of collection, exchange and commercialization of the human gene, the rights and the safety of the peoples targeted by this research have already been jeopardized in numerous incidents including:

• the transfer of blood and tissue samples from publicly-funded medical research to private corporations without the awareness or consent of the sampled peoples;
• the refusal by publicly-funded researchers to release information about their work on the grounds that they are protecting "trade secrets";
• the use of military agencies to collect blood and tissue samples of indigenous peoples;
• the patenting of the cell line of an indigenous Papua New Guinea man by the US National Institutes of Health and the US government's attempts to patent the DNA of other indigenous peoples without evidence of prior informed consent;
• the routine and unregulated transfer of blood and tissue samples between medical labs and US military labs engaged in biological warfare research.

Indigenous peoples have a particular stake in these issues as they are the primary targets of rapidly expanding research into the supposed genetic basis of human diversity. The Human Genome Diversity Project is a genetic mega-project that goes under different names in different regions, but is well-known to indigenous peoples as the Vampire Project. The goal of the HGDP in all its guises is to collect, clone and exchange blood and tissue samples representing the world's cultural diversity. Although the HGDP denies specifically targeting indigenous peoples, research into the genetic markers of human diversity inevitably focuses on indigenous peoples, both because indigenous peoples make up fully 95 percent of the world's culturally distinct peoples and because indigenous peoples are typically geographically isolated and hence potentially carriers of the distinctive genetic information sought by the gene hunters. In fact, an early list of the HGDP's own targets to join gene banks of the world's "isolates of historical interest" lists more than 700 peoples the majority of whom are indigenous peoples. By reducing the rich and complex cultural history of indigenous peoples to a few strands of DNA, and then putting that DNA into unregulated circulation among governments, corporations and military agencies, programs for mass sampling such as the HGDP violate fundamental beliefs in the sanctity of human life, threaten to fuel the flames of racist science, and raise the spectre of coercive medical research and even biological warfare on indigenous peoples.

Pharmaceutical corporations and other private interests have recognized that there are astronomical profits to be made from the collection and patenting of human DNA.

Honest consideration of all the concerns surrounding DNA sampling would require the genomic industry and its academic collaborators to slow their rush to privatize and commercialize human DNA. By their actions the gene hunters have demonstrated that they are unwilling to even contemplate this "sacrifice."

For more than a decade, the genomic industry and associated academics have been wringing their hands about the "ethical issues" surrounding DNA sampling. But for all the meetings, conferences and debates, the peoples targeted for sampling have never had their voices heard and the outcome has always been the same: the collection and exchange of human genetic material continues at an ever accelerating pace, violations of human rights and safety continue to be a routine part of the genomic industry, and the legitimate concerns of the targeted peoples over rights and safety are never acknowledged or addressed.

Will "The First International Conference on DNA Sampling" be any different? This conference could have provided an opportunity for the open debate and public scrutiny that is so desperately needed. Instead the indigenous peoples who are the primary targets of DNA sampling have been shut out of the conference and participation has been largely restricted to the proponents of mass sampling and commercialization of human genes. As a consequence, the "First International Conference on DNA Sampling" appears likely to stand as merely the most recent example of the genomic industry's callous disregard for the rights and safety of the peoples it targets.

Hollow debates orchestrated by the proponents of accelerated DNA sampling can no longer be allowed to cloak this exploitative and unscrupulous commercial enterprise in the guise of disinterested science. Since the genomic industry and its supporters have been unable to assure the rights and safety of the peoples targeted by DNA sampling, we, the undersigned, call for:

• an immediate halt to the Human Genome Diversity Project and implementation of a broader moratorium on further collection of the DNA of indigenous peoples;
• an immediate investigation to determine whether the blood and tissue samples held by publicly funded agencies and research institutions were collected and stored with the informed consent of the sampled peoples;
• where informed consent cannot be shown to exist, the destruction of these collections or where appropriate their repatriation to the originating communities;
• and immediate concrete assurance that DNA samples collected by publicly funded researchers will not be exchanged with either corporate or military labs.

Furthermore, we call upon all scientists, ethicists and policy makers of good conscience attending the "The First International Conference on DNA Sampling" to endorse these basic measures for ensuring that human rights and safety will no longer be casualties of the rush to privatize the human gene.

Elisabeth Abergel, The Feminist Alliance on New Reproductive and Genetic Technologies,

Toronto Alejandro Argumedo, Cultural Survival Canada and the Indigenous Peoples' Biodiversity Network

Gwynne Basen, filmmaker, Montreal

Rosalie Bertell, Ph.D., International Institute of Concern for Public Health

Sofia Ciechanowski Angela Griffiths, Ph.D., Calgary

Brewster Kneen, Cathleen Kneen, Publishers of The Ram's Horn Humberto Mafra,

President, Fundacao Francisco, Brasilia, Brazil

Pat Mooney and Jean Christie, RAFI Canada

Jude Morrison, BCBC

Ed Peramaki Gabriele Roehl

Stephanie Scott, Ph.D. student, University of British Columbia

Hope Shand and Edward Hammond III, RAFI USA

Christine St. Peter, Chair, Women's Studies, University of Victoria, B.C.

Martin Teitel, Ph.D.

Scott Toguri McFarlane,

Marnie Thorp, and Sourayan Mookerjea, Co-organizers, LifeStrains

Organizations

Assembly of First Nations Cultural Survival Canada

The Feminist Alliance on New Reproductive and Genetic Technologies LifeStrains: A Project Committed to the Dissemination of Information Regarding Biotechnologies, Vancouver,BC

Rural Advancement Foundation International (RAFI)

Vancouver Women's New Reproductive Technologies Coalition