WITH gene therapy researchers still reeling from the unexplained death of
18-year-old Jesse Gelsinger last September during a clinical trial, critics of
biotechnology are calling for an immediate moratorium on the use of some
techniques.
Jeremy Rifkin, an activist who sued the US National Institutes of Health in
1989 in an effort to stop the very first gene therapy trial, returned last week
to accuse its Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee (RAC) of failing to protect
patients. “You’re just getting around to asking questions that you should have
asked ten years ago,” he said. Rifkin formally asked the committee to request…
