MARINA DEL REY, CA--This week we are witnessing a conflict between technology creators, who save millions of lives, and environmentalists who want to destroy their creations, said a senior writer for the Ayn Rand Institute (ARI).
"During the annual convention of the Biotechnology Industry Organization in San Diego, the battle is between those who hold human life as the basic value and those who do not," said ARI's David Holcberg. He noted some of the life-saving triumphs of the biotechnology industry:
* Bacteria with human genes produces insulin that keeps millions of diabetic Americans alive.
* "Golden rice," genetically engineered to help increase vitamin A levels in humans, may help prevent half a million children from going blind every year and another million from dying of vitamin A deficiency.
* Genetically engineered potatoes, bananas and tomatoes containing vaccines to fight a variety of diseases, including hepatitis B, can save countless lives every year.
Despite these triumphs, environmentalists oppose genetic engineering. Consider some of their words:
* A member of Greenpeace: "We view genetically engineered foods as having the potential for the largest environmental disaster in human history."
* The Institute of Science in Society, a London-based environmentalist group, demands the prohibition of golden rice, calling it a "most heinous abomination."
* The Organic Consumers Union says that bio-engineered vaccines are "a very bad idea ... causing unknown problems ... with unknown consequences."
"Environmentalist try to assure us that their purpose is to protect human life. But their consistent stand against a technology that saves millions of lives and can potentially eradicate disease from the face of the earth demonstrates the opposite. It reveals that they have no concern for human life," said Holcberg. "The bio-tech industry needs to mount an unequivocal moral defense of their life-saving technology."
Ayn Rand Institute executive director Dr. Yaron Brook is available for interviews on this topic.
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