Genetic Engineering

To the Editor: “Pandemics/Epidemics” September 9, 2009

On the issue that modern civilization is changing, everything changes with it, such as the constant battle between medicine and bacteria. Bacteria has always been a part of life, you cannot run away from it, living in the world your bound to get sick and attempt to receive care to become well again. With today’s medicine the once killer flu is just a shot or some pills to cure. Same as many other and more harmful strands of viruses and bacteria. But was this the case in 1993 when a young couple attracted the Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome and died with an unknown disease until three months after their passing? Or in 1999 when the West Nile virus came to New York? In both cases the virus mutated due to human interaction with the environment, by stressing, killing, crowding, cannibalizing, animals and destroying habitats as well as every countries ominous contribution to global warming. Humanization, and interferences with nature has and will cause more outbreaks of mutating viruses that will kill, which will be resilient to antibiotics, vaccines, and have the capability to transfer from birds, fish, insects, and human beings, with one predictable outcome, death. So why do we feed our livestock’s, our children, our farms with antibiotics and possible waste, to become immune to common strand of a virus? To ensure that that virus will mutate, adapt to its surroundings and become something potentially more dangerous, less curable, and difficult to understand it’s origin until after innocent lives are lost. We should stop trying to change the boundaries that the earth set, and revert to what our nation was built upon, “One nation under God.”

Cory Martin
Vancouver Washington