Genetic manipulation : the threat or the glory? report / of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology.

  • Australia. Parliament. House of Representatives. Standing Committee on Industry, Science, and Technology
Date:
[1992]
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: Genetic manipulation : the threat or the glory? report / of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    BACKGROUND INFORMATION A. BIOLOGY A.1 Genetic manipulation 1.1 Genetic manipulation involves altering (adding to, deleting from or re-arranging) the genetic information in an organism. It often can involve adding genetic information from other organisms/species. Cloning a gene is often, but not always, an essential part of genetic manipulation. This should not be confused with embryo cloning, in vitro fertilization and embryo transplants, which are separate techniques.’ 1.2 One submission stated that the term ‘genetically engineered organism’ was to be preferred to ‘genetically modified organism’ to avoid confusion with conventional biotechnology such as traditional plant breeding. The kind of techniques it was claimed needed to be covered were “recombinant-DNA technology, as well as other techniques, including, but not limited to cell fusion, protoplast fusion, embryo mixing, chemical poration, ectroporation [sic], projectile transfer and microinjection.”? 1.3 The UK Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution, which investigated this subject, used the term genetic engineering in its Thirteenth Report. The Royal Commission shifted to the phrase “genetically modified organism” instead of “genetically engineered organism” in its Fourteenth Report, dated June 1991, on the grounds that the former term has now become widely adopted.? 1.4 The Royal Commission commented on the difficulty of defining the subject matter, not only because of the sometimes different uses of the alternative terms but also because of the grey areas where traditional plant and animal breeding techniques overlap with the techniques which might now be called “engineering” or “manipulation” .* 1.5 The Royal Commission decided that whether something comes within the scope of the term genetic engineering should be determined on the basis of the techniques used rather than whether the outcome could have occurred naturally. Techniques which the Royal Commission considered met this requirement included recombinant 1 Cloning of a gene is the process of putting a vector carrying the gene into a host cell and allowing its numbers to increase by natural cell division. Ps Burch, Dr D et al.: Submission 106 p 12. “ectroporation” presumably means “electroporation”. 3 UK Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution, Fourteenth Report: Genhaz - a system for the critical appraisal of proposals to release genetically modified organisms into the environment, June 1991, footnote pl 4 UK Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution, Thirteenth Report: The release of }
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