10 October 2005

The acceptable face of GM?

"Genetically modified mosquitoes could soon be released into the wild in an attempt to combat malaria."
My suspicion is that the public are likely to be far less hostile to this than to GM foods. The reason being that they don't eat mosquitos and mozzies are harmful in the situations envisaged. I have a lot of sympathy with that perspective. On the other hand, though, there are still issues of concern: we're still introducing an organism untested in an ecosystem and have no real idea what will happen with the genes once they are out there or of the ecological knock-on effects of removing the mozzies from the system... it's not a simple win-win thing. On balance I suspect that it is probably a risk worth taking. But the point is, it is a risk.
Guardian Unlimited | Science | Scientists create GM mosquitoes to fight malaria and save thousands of lives:
GM, mosquitos, malaria, sterile male,

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