Gene Hunters follows the controversial story of an ambitious scientific enterprise to collect the DNA of native peoples from around the world before they “disappear forever”. Under the umbrella of the Human Genome Diversity Project scientists have ventured into some of the least accessible parts of South America to draw blood. Medical services are offered as incentives for parting with DNA, yet natives are often left confused and suspicious – and their suspicions may well be well-founded. Whilst the motives of the Human Genome Diversity Project are above reproach, new patenting laws in the US mean that, in the wrong hands, obscene amounts of money could made from the frozen blood of people who are facing imminent extinction. Gene Hunter poses fundamental questions about human origins and migration, native rights , medical ethics and profit.
Gene Hunters follows the controversial story of an ambitious scientific enterprise to collect the DNA of native peoples from around the world before they “disappear forever”. Under the umbrella of the Human Genome Diversity Project scientists have ventured into some of the least accessible parts of South America to draw blood. Medical services are offered as incentives for parting with DNA, yet natives are often left confused and suspicious – and their suspicions may well be well-founded. Whilst the motives of the Human Genome Diversity Project are above reproach, new patenting laws in the US mean that, in the wrong hands, obscene amounts of money could made from the frozen blood of people who are facing imminent extinction. Gene Hunter poses fundamental questions about human origins and migration, native rights , medical ethics and profit.
