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A MESSAGE FROM THE FOUNDING MEMBERS:
The website launch of the Alliance for Humane Biotechnology to help raise awareness about the social implications of genetic technologies has been a success! We have a thriving website and growing E-network. The eagerness with which people are seeking information from AHB puts to rest the presumption that biotechnological development is too complex to stimulate civic participation. Please contact us with your ideas on how to further AHB’s grassroots appeal.
Thank you!
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We are an alliance of scholars, students, and activists working for a biotechnology that places the health and welfare of people and the natural environment above financial interests. We network, speak, and publish on the social implications of biotechnological developments, especially those concerning human genetic manipulation. Areas of interest include reproductive and genetic technologies, human egg harvesting, cloning research, disability rights, biotech patenting, human-animal hybrid research, and synthetic biology.
We emphasize the common social, political, and economic conditions that give rise to human genetic engineering and the engineering of other genetically modified organisms, recognizing that human commodification and commodification of the natural environment are products of the same social processes.
We invite students, and all visitors, to begin by checking out "AHB 101" on the menu for a thumbnail sketch, recommended readings and short videos concerning the cultural politics of biotechnological development.
Throughout the site look for the helpful AHB NOTE in red for explanations of terminology, concepts, or technologies. A red AHB QUERY might suggest a challenge or offer a reflection on what you're reading or viewing.
Please bookmark our site and tell your Facebook or other social networking friends and colleagues about AHB. And be sure to visit GET ACTIVE! for suggestions on how you can help work for a humane biotechnology.
Welcome!
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Board of Directors:
Diane Beeson, Ph.D. Associate Director
Patricia Jennings, Ph.D. Treasurer
Abby Lippman, Ph.D.
Catherine Powell Secretary
M. L. Tina Stevens, Ph.D. Executive Director
| Advisory Board:
Elaine Draper, J.D., Ph.D. Justine Durrell, J.D. Rosann Greenspan, Ph.D. Emilia Ianeva, J.D., Ph.D. Rabbi Michael Lerner Paul K. Longmore, Ph.D. Jeff Lustig, Ph.D. Margaret F. Lynch, Ph.D. Stuart A. Newman, Ph.D. Marsha Saxton, Ph.D. Stephen Shmanske, Ph.D. Sheila R. Tully, Ph.D. Casey Walker Peter J. Whitehouse, M.D., Ph.D. Malcolm Zaretsky, Ph.D, MPH
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Legal Counsel: James E. Stevens, J.D.
Director, Student Affairs: Nicole B. Marchand
Director, Continuing Education: Stephanie C. Smith
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Founding Members:
Diane Beeson, Ph.D. Joan Higgs Emilia Ianeva, J.D., Ph.D. Nicole Marchand Frances Santiago Ashley Silverthorn M. L. Tina Stevens, Ph.D. James E. Stevens, J.D.
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A must see: ETC Group's Jim Thomas offers an incisive, eloquent social analysis of "synthetic biology" (in just 10 minutes, 18 seconds -- you have to see it to believe it!)
AHB NOTE: What is Synthetic Biology?
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AHB NOTE: "ART" is an acronym for "assisted reproductive technology."
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AHB NOTE: See also Newman's, "My attempt to patent a human-animal chimera," where he relates that Philip Leder, Chair of the Genetics Department, Harvard Medical School stated in 1998 that, “[t]he creation of chimeras is an outlandish undertaking. No one is trying to do it at present, certainly not involving human beings.” Such a comment contrasts starkly with Great Britain's recent green-light for creating human-animal embryos and offers a dramatic example, once again, of biotech's slippery ethical slope.
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