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Alliance for Humane Biotechnology

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!



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!



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


Legal Counsel:
James E. Stevens, J.D.


Director, Student Affairs:
Nicole B. Marchand


Director, Continuing Education:
Stephanie C. Smith


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.


 


For more information,
to make a request
for speakers,
or to volunteer with AHB
please contact us at:

info@humanebiotech.org


To discuss starting
an AHB group
or student club
on your campus
please contact:

nicolemarchand@humanebiotech.com


 

NEW!  Free download:  AHB Flyer 





NEWS ALERT
:   California's Governor Schwarzenegger signs AB 1317 into law.  Egg broker advertisements seeking eggs from young women must now reference the health risks associated with egg extraction.    


To read a summary of scientific evidence in support of AB 1317, click here



 
NEWS:
 
 
"BIOFAB launches as world's first biological design-build facility," January 18, 2010.
AHB Note:  This article reports on the launch of the world’s first open-source genetic parts production facility to support synthetic biology or "synbio."  What is synbio?  Why should we care?  Find out here.

 
Genetic Research Spurs Fight Over Patents Tied to the Body, The Wall Street Journal, December 10, 2009 
 
"NY to Pay for Eggs for Research," June 17, 2009
 
"9/11 Hero Dog is Cloned into 5 Puppies," June 17, 2009
 
"Glowing Green Monkeys Illustrate Important but Controversial Advance," May 28, 2009
 
"A Baby Please.  Blond, Freckles -- Hold the Colic,"  February 12, 2009

NEWS ARCHIVE



FEATURED VIDEO:


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? 


 


FEATURED COMMENTARY:
 
Diane Beeson and M. L. Tina Stevens, "Ushering in the New Eugenics"
 
Marcy Darnovsky, "Nobel Notions and the Uses of Genetics"
 
M. L. Tina Stevens and Stuart A. Newman, "Crosssing Lines: Breaching Human-Animal and 'Left-Right' Boundaries"
 


FEATURED BOOK REVIEWS:
 
Diane Beeson on Kristi Lew's, Egg Donation: The Reasons and the Risks
AHB NOTE:  After reading this book review be sure to visit the Egg Donors Project.


Rebecca Tuhus-Dubrow, "ART in America"
AHB NOTE:
"ART"  is an acronym for "assisted reproductive technology."

 
Cheryl Miller, "Parenthood at Any Price," on Liza Mundy's, Everything Conceivable
 


FEATURED ARTICLES: 
 
 
Stuart A. Newman, "Averting the Clone Age: Prospects and Perils of Human Developmental Manipulation"
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.
 
Lori B. Andrews, "Genes and Patent Policy: Rethinking Intellectual Property Rights"
 
Neil Munro, "Dr Who? Scientists are treated as objective arbiters in the cloning debate. But most have serious skin in the game."
 
Diane Beeson and Abby Lippman, "Egg Harvesting for Stem Cell Research -- Medical Risks and Ethical Problems"
AHB NOTE:  After reading this article Get Active!  Visit the Egg Donors Project. .


SUGGESTED READING:
 
Pete Shanks, Human Genetic Engineering: A Guide for Activists, Skeptics, and the Very Perplexed.
 
Casey Walker, Made Not Born: The Troubling World of Biotechnology
 
Paul K. Longmore. Why I Burned My Book and Other Essays on Disability

Alliance for Humane Biotechnology