Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Company Gains Research Rights To Tongan Genome

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the shouldn't-that-be-the-tongans'-not-'tonga's'? dept.

spam_it_to_me_baby writes: "An Australian listed company, Autogen, has acquired research rights to the Kingdom of Tonga's gene pool. The Pacific island's 108,000 residents will be used by the company to identify genes that cause common diseases. Autogen says serum or DNA samples collected in Tonga shall remain the property of Tonga, while Autogen will build the genetic database on which the research will be based. More here." Similar to research going to collect the genetic information of everyone in Iceland, another place with a winning combination of low population and historical isolation. A single company (Decode) also won the "rights" to that information, for a mere $200 million.

6 of 108 comments (clear)

  1. Are Tongan civil rights eroded? by judd · · Score: 5

    I note that apparently Autogen has exclusive rights over all samples collected in Tonga, which in turn belong to Tonga.

    So if Jonah Lomu gives blood in New Zealand, it belongs to him. If he goes home to Tonga, all rights over it belong to Autogen.

    ./ers may not be aware that Tonga still has a autocratic monarchy, with a parliament with a majority of seats guaranteed to noble families. Tongans who want a democratic system tend to find themselves in jail. Looks to me like Autogen has cynically found a jurisdiction with a compliant and corrupt ruling clique. Shame on them.

    1. Re:Are Tongan civil rights eroded? by Lars+Arvestad · · Score: 4
      Deals like this can also be made in democracies. As mentioned, Iceland's deCODE struck a deal with the Icelandic government, giving them exlusive rights (time limited, I think) to commercialize the data. The public health system in a part of Sweden has done the same with a comany called Uman Genomics. Here, the company gains access to anonymized public health records. I think there is a similar initiative in Estonia.

      Technically, I think the samples belongs the one collecting them. What these companies buy is the exlusive cooperation with public healt authorities. Presumably, Jonah donates blood to a company which also collects genealogy info, it would all be in order. However, without clinical records, this information will no be so valuable.

      The deal seems good to me. A crucial fact is that Autogen is setting up a facility in Tonga, instead of shipping all the samples to Australia.
      Lars
      __

      --
      Reality or nothing.
    2. Re:Are Tongan civil rights eroded? by judd · · Score: 4

      "monarchy != corrupt regime".

      Indeed not. But this one certainly has been. If you haven't found anything by searching, you haven't looked very far.

      A simple search on Google for Tonga and Corruption yields this:

      1. Imprisonment of dissenting journalists.
      http://www.transparency.de/documents/newsletter/ 98.2/reports.html
      2. Passports and citizenship are sold to foreign nationals.
      http://sunsite.anu.edu.au/spin/SPINDOC/larmour97 1.html
      3. The current land minister has been convicted of illegal land transfer deals in the 80s. Critics of his appointment as minister were imprisoned.
      http://www.tongatapu.net.to/tonga/news/briefs/ss 980319.htm
      4. The king dissolved the parliament after it voted to impeach the minister for corruption.
      http://jinx.sistm.unsw.edu.au/~greenlft/1996/250 /250p2b.htm

      Etc.

      I am not an American. I'm a New Zealander. (And I'm far from impressed with American efforts in the South Pacific thus far. Had there been an article about American Samoa, Kiribati, Paula, the Marshall Islands, etc, you would have seen criticism of US policy from me.)

      As it is, New Zealand has a large Tongan minority and Tongan affairs are commonly in the news here. I strongly suspect I'm better informed than you are.

  2. So that'd be genome.to would it? by matthew.thompson · · Score: 4
    They're selling their Country Specific TLD, their genome

    IS there anything that these tongan's won't sell?

    --
    Matt Thompson - Actuality - Insert product here.
  3. Re:Selective Reproduction? by Sheeple+Police · · Score: 4

    If I had my psych notes, I could give you exact studies and what not, but this whole concept of selective breeding was explored by a psychologist, named Sheldon, under the guise that he was 'measuring body types'... the whole concept of ectomorph/endomorph/mesomorph was his classification for these, and through measuring Ivy League students (male and female) as they were accepted, he was trying to pattern the necessities for breeding an elite race of 'super-geeks' (I say geeks because they were Ivy Leaguers, but mind you, I know they were not *true* geeks, or at least not the LARGE majority).

    In either event, I don't quite remember what happened to him after that. Either there was a public cry much like that against Frankenstein's monster... or there was apathy... either way, I wouldn't place it very far in the future, with such atrocities occuring....

    Mind you, this was primitive studies, and in today's world of DNA manipulation and understanding, with the human genome mapped, you really have to wonder if there won't be some Neo-Sheldon who will attempt such a thing. I suspect it would be someone with a large amount of money and the guise of helping the public...

    and his name shall be Bill, for he shall be evil.

    --

    Information is the catalyst for revolution
  4. The Israelis have already thought of this... by The+Dodger · · Score: 4

    Allegedly, Israeli scientists have identified certain unique features of the Arab/Palestinians' genome which don't appear in Israelis' genome.

    And this is in a country where a significant fraction of the population believe that the only bad thing about nuking the West Bank would be the radioactive fallout that would drift across the border in Israel. Of course, on the other hand, you have the Arabs, a significant fraction of whom think that driving Israel into the sea is a perfectly reasonable policy. Fun, fun, fun...

    Come to think of it, I guess that explains why the Israelis were so interested in developing their own neutron bombs. For the uninitiated, neutron bombs (invented by Dr Sam Cohen, who was part of the original Manhattan project, in cased anyone's interested in doing further research) are nuclear devices which, when detonated, generally produce a minimal blast and thermal effect, but they produce a substantial pulse of neutron radiation which penetrates hardened shelters and produces a destructive ionizing effect when it interacts with living tissue. In other words, such a weapon does not destroy buildings as much as it kills people.

    In other words, with a neutron bomb, you can kill everyone in a city, without destroying the city. Get rid of your enemies, and as soon as the radiation fades, move in, clean up the mess and you have a ready-built city. Cool, huh? 'Twas all the rage during the Cold War - any decent superpower just had to have one, dahling...

    Where was I? Oh yeah, genetic ethnic cleansing. I think that the knowledge and technology exists today to engineer a virus that kills only a certain ethnic group. Fortunately, noone seems to have done it yet.

    At least, as far as we know.


    D.
    PS: Yes, I am possibly the most cynical person in the world...