from the SAGFIN/Gene Ethics mailout…
Please spend just a minute to email your state Minister at this link now.
It’s quick, simple and important to have your say!!
State and Territory Ministers will decide this month whether to retain GM CRISPR** regulation, or to declare open season on the makeup of all animals, plants, microbes and humans.
Last year, the world was shocked when a Chinese scientist used the new genetic modification (GM) technique CRISPR to produce the world’s first GM babies. Scientists globally condemned the research, saying it was too risky to use this technique in human embryos.
But now the Australian Government proposes to deregulate the use of CRISPR and other GM techniques in animals, plants and microbes.
Powerful scientific evidence shows these new GM techniques pose many risks. So it’s vital that organisms produced using these methods are assessed for safety before being released into our environment and supermarkets.
Tell them that regulating all new GM CRISPR processes (SDN1) and products must continue. We know that CRISPR has off-target impacts and a very scant history of any safe use.
Two CRISPR babies created last year were a wake up call that these methods can be used to Genetically Manipulate any living organism, including humans, to turn it into a product.
Our health, environments and markets are at risk from the deregulation of CRISPR, especially in farm food, seed, and drug supplies.
Please ask you Minister for CRISPR regulation here now.
** CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats) is a group of new Genetic Manipulation techniques and enzymes (including Talen and ZFN) for cutting and pasting an organism’s DNA.