IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pal/develp/v62y2019i1d10.1057_s41301-019-00214-3.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Exterminator Genes: The Right to Say No to Ethics Dumping

Author

Listed:
  • Mariann Bassey-Orovwuje

    (Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA))

  • Jim Thomas

    (Action Group on Erosion, Technology and Concentration (ETC Group))

  • Tom Wakeford

    (Action Group on Erosion, Technology and Concentration (ETC Group))

Abstract

The scientific-industrial complex is promoting a new wave of genetically modified organisms, in particular gene drive organisms, using the same hype with which they tried to persuade society that GMOs would be a magic bullet to solve world hunger. The Gates Foundation claims that GDOs could help wipe out diseases such as malaria. Powerful conservation lobby groups claim GDOs will protect engendered species. Not only are the benefits from GDOs based, like their predecessors, on flawed ecological thinking, but they are backed by the same agri-business interests that have devastated agroecological farming systems. The rights of communities to say ‘no’ to new genetic technologies is being eroded, despite United Nations agreements, such as the Convention on Biological Diversity, which call for the free, prior and informed consent of affected communities to be respected. By exporting their field trials to countries with weak regulatory regimes and lowering of the standards of consent the Gates Foundation’s Target Malaria project has already been guilty of ethics dumping. These developments demonstrate the urgent need to democratize the development of new technologies.

Suggested Citation

  • Mariann Bassey-Orovwuje & Jim Thomas & Tom Wakeford, 2019. "Exterminator Genes: The Right to Say No to Ethics Dumping," Development, Palgrave Macmillan;Society for International Deveopment, vol. 62(1), pages 121-127, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:develp:v:62:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1057_s41301-019-00214-3
    DOI: 10.1057/s41301-019-00214-3
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41301-019-00214-3
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1057/s41301-019-00214-3?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pal:develp:v:62:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1057_s41301-019-00214-3. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.palgrave-journals.com/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.