Interesting Article/ Case Study for Science and Values – Geneticly Altered Mosquitos

Dec 1, 2011 by mab093220

I mentioned this article in class from Scientific American (Nov 2011) about genetically altered mosquitos as a means for fighting disease. Here is link to article: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=the-wipeout-gene

This is interesting/ raises questions on many levels:

- Private versus public research (both are represented here)

- Ethical testing – the private firm is testing unapproved “technologies” in third world countries where rules are lax

- Ethics of genetic modification – though it is interesting that the genetic modification models the effects of poisoning; some interesting discussion surrounding containment