SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
from the teenage-mutant-ninja-doggies dept.
Ishee, a member of what's called the "biohacker" movement, says he is hoping to use inexpensive new gene-editing techniques to modify the genes of Dalmatians. By repairing a single DNA letter in their genomes, Ishee believes, he can rid them of an inherited disease, hyper uricemia, almost as closely associated with the breed as their white coats and black spots.
In early January, Ishee sent the agency a sketch of his plans to fix Dalmatians expecting to be told no approval was needed. He didn't immediately hear back—and soon found out why. On January 18, the agency released a sweeping new proposal to regulate cattle, pigs, dogs, and other animals modified with gene-editing.
The federal health agency already regulates transgenic animals—those with DNA added from a different species. But what about a dog whose genome has been tweaked to repair a disease gene? Or to endow it with the gene for a trait, like fluffy fur, already found in another canine? According to the newly proposed regulations, such creations will also need federal approval before entering the marketplace.
Is it government overreach, or do such restrictions make sense?
(Score: 5, Informative) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday February 02 2017, @05:15PM
Which is all fine and good if you know what the gene does before you change it. If you're playing guesswork games you could really fuck shit up for everybody though. Direct DNA manipulation is not something that should be done lightly.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2, Touché) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday February 02 2017, @05:25PM
Modded up because it's apparently something that people here need said to them, despite how bleedin' obvious it is.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 02 2017, @05:51PM
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday February 02 2017, @05:56PM
Why not? If the zombie corpse of Hitler popped out of the ground and started shouting "Der sky ist blue!" at me, I'm not gonna start believing it's orange with purple polka dots just because it's Undead Hitler telling me the sky is blue.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 02 2017, @06:39PM
AC you had to poke. Now MB is reincarnated zombie. Btw AH, in what universe do the undead speak coherently?
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday February 02 2017, @06:51PM
I didn't say Uzzard's a (literal) zombie, just making the point that the truth is the truth, no matter the source. No one can be wrong 100% of the time.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 03 2017, @02:23PM
At the very least, the undead in Dragon Ball Z: Fusion Reborn [wikipedia.org] speak coherently, including undead Hitler.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 03 2017, @02:04PM
Der Himmel ist blau, actually.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday February 03 2017, @06:18PM
That just makes you a literal grammar Nazi :D I don't sprechen Deutsch, sorry.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Thursday February 02 2017, @09:44PM
I reckon that's a mark of integrity. When you can mod up somebody you mostly disagree with, it says you can rise above petty tribalism and give credit where credit is due. I salute AH for it. I hope others follow her lead.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 03 2017, @03:32PM
(Score: 4, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Thursday February 02 2017, @07:46PM
So, how, exactly, is the regulatory agency going to prove that a Dalmation in the marketplace without hyper uricemia has been genetically edited?
Make the mod, fix the disease, observe 3 generations of offspring for any unintended consequences, if the great-grandkids of the edited embryos are good dogs, sell them as good dogs, not as frankenfurmutts.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 4, Informative) by Zz9zZ on Thursday February 02 2017, @08:21PM
That is the point of regulation, unscrupulous scientists will make genetic changes based on how much they're paid and skip the entire unintended consequences aspect.
~Tilting at windmills~
(Score: 1, Redundant) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday February 02 2017, @10:23PM
Bingo.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 02 2017, @08:14PM
It should not be done at all.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by gringer on Thursday February 02 2017, @09:00PM
Direct gene manipulation will result in a lot fewer fuck-ups than the current "acceptable" methods of breeding dogs with their siblings and cousins. At least if you're manipulating a single gene, you know that the effects are specifically associated with that gene manipulation, rather than one of many different modified areas of the genome.
Ask me about Sequencing DNA in front of Linus Torvalds [youtube.com]
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday February 02 2017, @10:22PM
Which is all fine and good until you flip the Super Mutant Hellhound gene. Or the Exude Toxic Sweat gene. And it somehow gets into the wild.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by gringer on Friday February 03 2017, @01:24AM
And it somehow gets into the wild.
A dog that caused problems of the scale that you're suggesting would be pretty quickly Darwined out of the population. We have a lot more to worry about from mutant bacteria and viruses (with generation times of days and hours) than we do from mutant mammals (except perhaps Donald Trump).
Ask me about Sequencing DNA in front of Linus Torvalds [youtube.com]