Bio-Engineered Rice Uses Human Genes

gliph writes "Yahoo news has a piece about a small biogenetics firm that is using genetically engineered rice containing human genes to help fight diarrhea. From the article: 'Ventria's rice produces two human proteins found in mother's milk, saliva and tears, which help people hydrate and lessen the severity and duration of diarrhea attacks, a top killer of children in developing countries.'"

Comments

Old recipe for stopping diarrhea

[Aceticon]

Eat uncooked flour dissolved in a little water.

Eating cooked rice also helps stopping diarrhea. Normal rice, non genetic modifications whatsoever.

These simple old tricks come all the way from my grandmother, and i've used them often enough to know that they work (either that or it's the placebo effect in action).

So why exactly do we need frankein-rice for?

Re:Old recipe for stopping diarrhea

[Enderandrew]

The article mentions specifically it is being developed for developing nations. Whether or not it will be donated, purchased by charities, or sold in more exploitative fashion I don't know.

Re:Ethics?

[Compuser]

And when you do an insulin shot, is that
also injecting yourself with a part of a
human? Many drugs are made in e.g. e.coli
where a human or modified human gene is
expressed to make a protein, then purified
and sold. This new approach is just
packaging the relevant drug/protein in a
capsule which happens to be a rice grain.
No ethics problems here.

Shouldn't the headline read...

[draxbear]

U.S company avoids human trial testing in states, instead using children in Peru.

FTA
>"Earlier this month, a Peruvian scientist sponsored by Ventria presented data at the Pediatric Academics Societies meeting in San Francisco. It showed children hospitalized in Peru with serious diarrhea attacks recovered quicker -- 3.67 days versus 5.21 days -- if the dehydration solution they were fed contained the powder."

Re:Ethics?

[BigWhale]

Ethics - Schmetics! ;)

  You obviously never had a little child with severe diarrhea. Which is sometimes accompanied by a lot of vomiting. So everything you feed to your child goes out. If not in first few minutes upwards than in next few minutes downwards.

  Eating human? Please. There are many genes that are common to many speices. So, 'eating genes' that are present in pig/cow/horse/chicken... and human... Well, you cannibal!

$ick $cience

[STDOUBT]

"...which help people hydrate and lessen the severity and duration of diarrhea attacks, a top killer of children in developing countries" (think of the children!)

You know what helps people hydrate? Water. Clean water and food can prevent diarrhea. All that money going into genetically engineered crops. Why not fix the socio-political problems of these regions so the infrastructures -> people can become healthy?

Oh yeah... no profit in that. Hell's gonna be standing room only.

Re:$ick $cience

[DerekLyons]

"...which help people hydrate and lessen the severity and duration of diarrhea attacks, a top killer of children in developing countries"(think of the children!)

You know what helps people hydrate? Water. Clean water and food can prevent diarrhea. All that money going into genetically engineered crops.

Oh yeah... no profit in that.

Actually, there's considerable profit in providing infrastructure (I.E. water, and power for food preservation). But, unsurprisingly - a bioengineering firm is promoting bioengineering methods rather than infrastructure.

Why not fix the socio-political problems of these regions so the infrastructures -> people can become healthy?

In many areas the West has tried to do exactly that - but then they are pilloried for meddling where they aren't wanted.

Re:$ick $cience

[Shihar]

All that money going into genetically engineered crops. Why not fix the socio-political problems of these regions so the infrastructures -> people can become healthy?

There are two reasons.

First, this is a biotech company. I highly doubt that they have much experience in how to "fix socio-political problems". On the other hand, they are probably pretty skillful at making genetically modified rice that could help reduce the number of people that die from one of the top 10 killers in the third world.

Second, all the money in the world can't fix the problems in many third world nations. You can throw as much money at the problem and it wont suddenly make good governance appear. If throwing money at a problem would make good governance, Iraq should be a flowering utopia. Instead, Iraq is a black hole where a billion dollars goes in, a million dollars come out in government coffers, and the rest vanishes in corruption.

Poor governance is the source of world poverty. Feeding everyone isn't that expensive. Hell, do all the things required to help bring a nation up to the point where it can stand on its own two feet is not that expensive. The issue is not paying for the things that these nations need. The issue is getting these things to these nations. Where the money starts to suddenly vanish is when you try and transport money/food/seeds, exc. If you hand these things over to the local government, large portions of it vanish. If you try and deliver it yourself, you risk getting expelled by the local government. What option does that leave you? Should you at that point invade and try and help people at the point of a gun? We tried that. It was called Somalia. In that one black hawk down incident a squad of American soldiers probably killed more Somali as they tried to retreat back to safety then they saved during the entire operation.

There is no easy fix to world poverty. Bitch that a biotech company is doing there small part to help the probably is counter productive and whiney at best.

Shut the fuck up.

[nugneant]

Seriously.

Shut. The. Fuck. Up.

It's easy for you to bitch and moan and fear-monger about the ethics of human DNA in some rice, from your computer chair in your air-conditioned first-world home or office. Meanwhile there are people - real, live people - people with thoughts, and feelings, and whose well-being you'd place at first-priority, whose well-being would be your tantamount concern, whose well-being would trump these silly goddamn over-analytical beardo quack ideas and "what ifs" -- that is, if you weren't such a fucking unthinking monster -- and these people are shitting themselves to death. And even though you and I both laughed as kids when we played Oregon Trail and learned what "dysentary" meant, one of us has managed to grow up, and figures it'd be best if we could put a stop to this horrible pain and suffering in the real world. Meanwhile, the other one is playing Armchair Philosopher, talking about lines being crossed and the ethics of eliminating suffering , without knowing the first thing about what he's talking about. Jesus Christ.

Have you heard about a little invention from the very late 1700s called "vaccinations"? Is this "ethical" in your eyes? Was it "ethical" for Louis Pasteur to inject human beings with (residual amounts of) COW DNA? Or should we have put a stop to this and let smallpox continue to ravage the globe? What about blood transfusions? That's OMG human DNA as well. Or, wait, are you one of those fucking quacker-flappers, like that lady who made an entire campaign out of "HIV does not cause AIDS", then gave AIDS to her daughter (by not taking any preventative measures during pregnancy)?

Look. I'm trying not to be too much of a -1 Flamebait -1 Troll -1 Confrontational Asshole, but what is your deal? If someone you loved (assuming you are actually capable of feeling empathy, or anything beyond Moral Sense [c.f. Twain, "The Mysterious Stranger"]) was locked in a room, in a hotel you did not own, which was currently on fire, would you worry about the ethics of breaking the door down? Would you tap the fireman on the back as he was about to take an axe to the door, and oh-so-wisely, intellectually bleat^H^H^H^H^H state that it was a violation of ethics to be destroying property that wasn't yours? Would you then put on your Humble Pious Face, with your head solemnly cast down, and proclaim your grief for the impending loss of your wife / child / mother / father? Or does this garbage only spew forth from your mouth when it's other people's children whose lives are at risk?

So much idiotic diarrhea dribbling out of your mouth - I'm sure this isn't the only completely moronic thing you've managed to come up with in your blessedly short existance. Maybe you could use a DNA injection. I know I'd gladly sodomize you. I mean "innoculate" you - I get those two words confused =)!



MODS: -1, Whatever me all you want. I prefer not to intellectualize idiocy (such as the Parent post), so if you're going to mod me down for calling bullshit when I see it, mod me down, for calling bullshit, when, I, see... it. </Shatner>

Re:Shut the fuck up.

[value_added]

It's easy for you to bitch and moan and fear-monger about the ethics of human DNA in some rice ... Meanwhile there are people whose well-being would trump these silly goddamn over-analytical beardo quack ideas and "what ifs"

What ifs? Is that meant to be imply some negative connotation to perfectly reasonable and serious concerns?

Here's a whatif, for you. What if we give hard working salt-of-the-earth farmers the chance to save some money and allow them to feed their cows animal protein instead of corn? Never mind the overly analytical issue of feeding herbivores other herbivores, there's livelihoods at risk, economies at stake, and benefits to go around for everyone.

Sorry, but the history of technological progress is littered with Really Bad Ideas that sounded really good at one time. Mad cow is just the latest, and a Google search will turn up as many as you want. Any radical idea deserves serious vetting, whether it takes the form of catcalls from the /. audience, or academic studies really isn't so important.

Re:Ethics?

[montyzooooma]

But no qualms about human breast milk? They even feed that to babies.

Wind Pollination

[Crisses]

I have a big issue with genetically engineered grains. All grains are wind pollinated. Pollen can travel quite far before fertilizing the female of a compatible plant species. Organic corn growers are already having big issues with this. You can't have heritage grains and pure strains when people are mucking around with wind pollenated plants.

I don't know how far they have tested this, but medicine and science has had several disasters with medications given to one generation and the disastrous results showing up in subsequent generations. Why can't we stick with things that humans evolved on and eliminate the crud like high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated oils, genetically modified foods, olean, etc? Our bodies don't know what we're eating anymore.

so why do you want to hurt them?

[penguin-collective]

Meanwhile there are people - real, live people - people with thoughts, and feelings, and whose well-being you'd place at first-priority, whose well-being would be your tantamount concern, whose well-being would trump these silly goddamn over-analytical beardo quack ideas and "what ifs"

These people are not going to be helped with bioengineered rice. The problems in the third world are political chaos, war, lack of family planning, lack of education, religious fundamentalism, and others. Poverty, disease, high mortality, child labor, homelessness, and migration are symptoms of that. You can't fix the problems by treating the symptoms, and even if the first world made it its top priority to help the third world, it couldn't being to alleviate the suffering. The only way this is ever going to get fixed is to address the root problems.

Every dollar you invest in attempts at quick fixes like bioengineered rice is a dollar you aren't spending on fixing the fundamental problems. It's actually worse than that: if you give these people crutches like bioengineered rice, they're even less likely to do what's necessary to modernize their infrastructure, and you make them dependent on high-tech products and imports.

It's well-meaning idiots like you that focus on the short term and keep meddling in those societies (creating corruption and dependency in the process) that are responsible for a large part of the suffering in the third world. Europe and the US developed into modern societies with long life expectancies without such meddling, and these nations can and will as well if we give them access to world markets and let them compete and develop freely.

Ethics and what have you

[jandersen]

It's weird to see how 'ethics' is used as a cheap and easy excuse for not doing the right thing; how can it not be right to save the lives of children?

But of course, this is not about save the lives of poor children - it is just yet another way to earn money from the poor. If we really wanted to put an end to unnecessary suffering, it would be far more relevant to try ending poverty; it is after all not as if we in the western world couldn't it if we really wanted to.

However, there is a more sinister side to the debate about genetically modified plants: gene pollution. It works like this: you grow your modified plant, the bees (or wind) comes and takes pollen away, and some of it pollinates wild plants - or the neighbor farmer's unmodified crop.

In the first case wild plant species now carry the modification, and it may or may not pop up later in circumstances that are very unfortunate. In the second case the farmer's crop is suddenly 'illegal', because it now contains patented genes that he has not paid any ryalties for using.

Now that's the REAL ethical challenge when it comes to genetic modification.

"Human" DNA is fearmongering

[vijayiyer]

All DNA is fundamentally the same. This just happens to be a base sequence that causes the creation of proteins usually produced by the human body rather than traditional rat, cow, slug, corn, or eveen rice proteins. Can someone explain _why_ this is going to cause the end of the world? Are people aware that it's standard practice to replace, for example, e coli base sequences with human ones so that the bacteria produce human proteins?
I'm appalled at the level of unscientific FUD that is out there. If slashdotters don't think scientifically, what will the general public do? Ban DHMO (http://www.dhmo.org/)?

Re:Product's name:

[gstoddart]

Are there any moslem or jewish /. readers who would be able to answer whether or not products like this rice could interfere with a religious diet?

Well, I can't speak for either of the the groups you mention, but I'm a very strict vegetarian, largely on ethical grounds (among several other reasons).

My objection to this would be two-fold: I don't wish to ingest stuff made from animal, and I don't wish to ingest GMOs in general.

I have no problem for selective breeding within a species; fine, select for traits that are already present. That makes sense, and that's a very natural process already.

But mixing genes from animals into plants scares the hell outta me -- in no small way because we realy don't know what the long-term consequences would be. Plus the issues of bio-diversity and the like (think Monsanto and patented corn).

Look at what happened with mad cow -- sheep protein had no business being fed to cows which are herbivores, who knows what the hell happens when we mix it into plants. We're seeing evidence that the growth hormones we feed cows is affecting puberty rates among children, and all sorts of scary, unintended consequences.

Personally speaking, I would be very unwilling to eat this rice, or any GMO produce in general, and most especially when animal genes have been spliced in. The whole thing skeeves me out like you wouldn't believe!!