Frankenstein's Cat: Cuddling Up to Biotech's Brave New Beasts (26 page)

It’s interesting to note that we rarely hear
: In fact, the flip side of the argument occurred to me only after I read it in the Academy of Medical Sciences report
Animals Containing Human Material
.

Animal cognition has much in common
: Academy of Medical Sciences,
Animals Containing Human Material
, 46–48.

In 2009, German researchers
: Wolfgang Enard et al., “A Humanized Version of Foxp2 Affects Cortico-basal Ganglia Circuits in Mice,”
Cell
135, no. 5 (2009): 961–71.

These sticky philosophical questions
: Academy of Medical Sciences,
Animals Containing Human Material
, 9.

Similarly, in the United States
: Ibid., 103–104.

biologists argue over just what
: Jason Scott Robert and Francoise Baylis, “Crossing Species Boundaries,”
American Journal of Bioethics
3, no. 3 (Summer 2003): 1–13.

African scientists and policymakers … a form of cannibalism
: Murray, discussion, February 2012.

“the great majority … no novel issues”
: Academy of Medical Sciences,
Animals Containing Human Material
, 7.

Different species of bacteria … other animals
: J. C. Dunning Hotopp, “Horizontal Gene Transfer Between Bacteria and Animals,”
Trends in Genetics
27, no. 4 (2011): 157–63.

The parasite that causes Chagas’ disease
: Mariana M. Hecht et al., “Inheritance of DNA Transferred from American Trypanosomes to Human Hosts,”
PLoS ONE
5, no. 2 (2010): e9181.

pea aphids have borrowed
: Nancy A. Moran and Tyler Jarvik, “Lateral Transfer of Genes from Fungi Underlies Carotenoid Production in Aphids,”
Science
328, no. 5978 (2010): 624–27.

and it’s what makes us recoil
: For more on how the yuck factor manifests itself in both cases—toilet water and biotechnology—see Charles W. Schmidt, “The Yuck Factor: When Disgust Meets Discovery,”
Environmental Health Perspectives
116, no. 12 (2008): A524–27.

“In critical cases … our humanity”
: Leon R. Kass, “The Wisdom of Repugnance,”
The New Republic
, June 2, 1997, 20. For another take, see Mary Midgley, “Biotechnology and Monstrosity: Why We Should Pay Attention to the ‘Yuk Factor,’”
Hastings Center Report
30, no. 5 (2000): 7–15.

“appears to be irrational…”
: Academy of Medical Sciences,
Animals Containing Human Material
, 70.

seeing an interracial couple
: I naïvely thought that I had come up with this great parallel, but it turns out that the disgust once common at the sight of interracial couples has been cited by many ethicists as evidence that there is not always wisdom in repugnance.

“conservation of welfare”
: Rollin,
The Frankenstein Syndrome
; Rollin, in discussion with author via telephone, February 13, 2012.

“If you’re going to modify…”
: Rollin, discussion.

the “Beltsville pig”
: Information on the Beltsville pig is from Rollin,
The Frankenstein Syndrome.
Committee on Defining Science-Based Concerns Associated with Products of Animal Biotechnology et al.,
Animal Biotechnology: Science Based Concerns
(Washington, DC: The National Academies Press, 2002), 98.

Our ability to limit … unusual health problems
: Murray and Maga, discussion, January 2012; Murray, discussion, February 2012.

the FDA examined seven generations
: “FDA Approves Orphan Drug ATryn,” U.S. FDA.

As Rollin put it in his book
: Rollin,
The Frankenstein Syndrome.

In fact, Murray and Maga’s goats
: Murray, discussion, 2011; Murray and Maga, discussion, January 2012; Maga et al., “Production and Processing of Milk from Transgenic Goats.”

Several labs, for instance, have created
: Jürgen A. Richt et al., “Production of Cattle Lacking Prion Protein,”
Nature Biotechnology
25 (2007): 132–38; Michael C. Golding et al., “Suppression of Prion Protein in Livestock by RNA Interference,”
PNAS
103, no. 14 (2006): 5285–90.

Several teams of Chinese scientists
: Richard Gray, “Cows Genetically Modified to Produce Healthier Milk,”
The Telegraph
, June 17, 2012,
www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/9335762/Cows-genetically-modified-to-produce-healthier-milk.html
.

Researchers in some labs
: Houdebine, “Production of Pharmaceutical Proteins by Transgenic Animals”; Dyck, “Making Recombinant Proteins in Animals.”

a whopping 9 grams of protein
: Dyck, “Making Recombinant Proteins in Animals.”

A team of Japanese biologists
: Masahiro Tomita et al., “Transgenic Silkworms Produce Recombinant Human Type III Procollagen in Cocoons,”
Nature Biotechnology
21, no. 1 (2003): 52–56.

one hen can lay
: A. J. Harvey and R. Ivarie, “Validating the Hen as a Bioreactor for the Production of Exogenous Proteins in Egg White,”
Poultry Science
82, no. 6 (2003): 927–30.

Scientists at Scotland’s Roslin Institute
: S. G. Lillico et al., “Oviduct-Specific Expression of Two Therapeutic Proteins in Transgenic Hens,”
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
104, no. 6 (2007): 1771–76; Helen Sang, in discussion with author via telephone, August 31, 2011.

Before long, we could
: For more on the egg as a vehicle for therapeutic proteins, see James N. Petitte and Paul E. Mozdziak, “The Incredible, Edible, and Therapeutic egg,”
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
104, no. 6 (2007): 1739–40.

“The way we’ve been making transgenics…”
: Van Eenennaam, discussion.

Today, scientists are far better
: Ibid.; Murray and Maga, discussion, January 2012.

in 2010, the biologist J. Craig Venter
: Daniel G. Gibson, et al., “Creation of a Bacterial Cell Controlled by a Chemically Synthesized Genome,”
Science
329 (July 2, 2010): 52–56. Elizabeth Pennisi, “Synthetic Genome Brings New Life to Bacterium,”
Science
328 (May 21, 2010): 958–59.

In 2012, Canadian researchers
: Andrew Pollack, “Move to Market Gene-Altered Pigs in Canada Is Halted,”
New York Times
, April 3, 2012,
www.nytimes.com/2012/04/04/science/gene-altered-pig-project-in-canada-is-halted.html?hpw
.

Researchers at the University
: S. P. Golovan et al., “Pigs Expressing Salivary Phytase Produce Low-Phosphorus Manure,”
Nature Biotechnology
19, no. 8 (2001): 741–45. For a less-technical overview, see “Enviropig,” University of Guelph, accessed March 9, 2012,
www.uoguelph.ca/enviropig/
.

the scientific team was unable
: Pollack, “Move to Market Gene-Altered Pigs.”

the animals were euthanized … laboratory environment
: Sarah Schmidt, “Genetically Engineered Pigs Killed after Funding Ends,” Postmedia News, June 22, 2012,
www.canada.com/technology/Genetically+engineered+pigs+killed+after+funding+ends/6819844/story.html
.

“I don’t think anybody…”
: Murray, discussion, January 2012.

3. Double Trouble

Tabouli and Baba Ganoush
: “At Play with Firm’s Clone Kittens,” BBC News, August 9, 2004,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3548210.stm
.

Lancelot Encore
: Michael Inbar, “Encore! Couple Spend $155,000 to Clone Dead Dog,”
MSNBC.com
, January 28, 2009.

The world of cloning changed
: Information about Dolly comes from Ian Wilmut et al., “Viable Offspring Derived from Fetal and Adult Mammalian Cells,”
Nature
385 (February 27, 1997): 810–13; Ian Wilmut and Roger Highfield,
After Dolly: The Uses and Misuses of Human Cloning
(New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 2006).

When Dolly was born
: Nicholl,
An Introduction to Genetic Engineering
.

Like just about everything … first in the nation
: National Agricultural Statistics Service, United States Department of Agriculture,
Census of Agriculture State Profile
:
Texas
(USDA, 2007), available at
www.agcensus.usda.gov/Publications/2007/Online_Highlights/County_Profiles/Texas/cp99048.pdf
.

The school has more than 700 acres
: The O. D. Butler, Jr., Animal Science Complex, which includes sheep, goat, and beef centers, consists of 580 acres; a separate horse center is 120 acres. “O. D. Butler, Jr., Animal Science Complex,” Texas A&M University, accessed April 1, 2012,
http://animalscience.tamu.edu/about/facilities/butler-ansc-complex/index.htm
; “Horse Center,” Texas A&M University, accessed April 1, 2012,
http://animalscience.tamu.edu/about/facilities/horse-center/index.htm
.

In the years that followed
: Duane Kraemer, in discussion with author, College Station, Texas, December 5, 2010.

Six months after … silky gray coat
: Ibid.; Mark Westhusin, in discussion with author via telephone, May 26, 2011; “Missy: Our Inspiration,” Genetic Savings & Clone, April 27, 2006,
www.savingsandclone.com/about_us/missy.html
(site discontinued, accessed via Internet Archive on March 26, 2012,
http://web.archive.org/web/20060427111502/www.savingsandclone.com/about_us/missy.html
); “Background: Missyplicity Project,” BioArts International, January 31, 2009,
http://bestfriendsagain.com/missyplicity/index.html
(site discontinued, accessed via Internet Archive on March 26, 2012,
http://web.archive.org/web/20090131060948/http://bestfriendsagain.com/missyplicity/index.html
); “About the Original,” BioArts International, February 3, 2009,
http://bestfriendsagain.com/missyplicity/original.html
(site discontinued, accessed via Internet Archive on March 26, 2012,
http://web.archive.org/web/20090203144140/http://bestfriendsagain.com/missyplicity/original.html
); John Woestendiek,
Dog, Inc
. (New York: Penguin, 2010), 96.

Missy belonged to Joan Hawthorne
: Woestendiek,
Dog, Inc.

After considering a number of labs … cloning effort
: Westhusin, discussion, May 2011, and e-mail message to author, February 22, 2012; Kraemer, discussion, December 2010.

$3.7 million
: Lou Hawthorne, “A Project to Clone Companion Animals,”
Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science
5, no. 3 (2002): 229–31.

When the Missyplicity Project
: Kraemer, discussion, December 2010.

“Millions of people…”
: Hawthorne, “A Project to Clone Companion Animals.”

Many of us consider
: Michael Schaffer,
One Nation Under Dog
(New York: Henry Holt and Co., 2009), 18. The book also has much more about the rising status of pets in our society and all the attendant consequences.

off to the afterlife in style
: Schaffer,
One Nation Under Dog
, also has a great look at the burgeoning pet death industry.