Jeff Lyon |
Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Jeff Lyon of the Chicago
Tribune will visit southwest Virginia, home of some of the
most innovative and controversial genetic research in the world,
to present “The Human Genome Project: Progress of Peril?”
Lyon will explore the moral, legal, political, and scientific
implications of decoding human beings.
The address, which is free and open to the public, will
take place Wednesday, February 28, at 11:00 a.m. in Vaughn Chapel,
Ferrum College.
According to Lyon’s presentation outline, he will
explain the scientific advances made in the field and examine
the three types of cloning, including that used to create “Dolly.”
He will then explore the benefits and risks associated with
animal and human cloning.
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The Human Genome Project (HGP) began in 1990 by the U.S.
Department of Energy and the National Institutes of Health to
identify and sequence all genes in human DNA.
Transferring this information to the private sector and
addressing the ethical, legal, and social issues (ELSI) that
will arise from the project was among the plan’s original
goals.
The HGP may have the ability to alter human existence
from procreation to death and even in the work place. From the cloning of Dolly to the proposed Carilion Biomedical
Institute, southwest Virginia may be leading the world. How could our local research and work
alter the world for all humankind?
Lyon’s press kit further asks, “If we play
‘God’, who among us will have access to the data? How will insurers, employers, courts,
schools, adoption agencies, the military, to name a few, use
this information?”
Lyon and his partner, Jeff Gorner, won the Pulitzer Prize
in 1987 for a series of articles on gene therapy. Their follow-up book, ALTERED FATES:
Gene Therapy and the Retooling of Human Life, predicted
the cloning of animals two years before the creation of “Dolly”
in 1997. Lyon is also the author of the 1985 book,
Playing God in the Nursery.
For more HGP information on the web:
Ferrum College is
a four-year, private, co-educational, liberal arts college affiliated
with the United Methodist Church.
Ferrum offers a choice of nationally recognized bachelor’s
degree programs at a cost well below the national average for
private colleges. For more information on Ferrum, visit www.ferrum.edu. # # #
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