Fwd: Of Gay Sheep, Modern Science and Bad Publicity

[Henk Vreekamp]

REPLY TO: D66 at nic.surfnet.nl

>Date:         Fri, 26 Jan 2007 07:32:12 -0500
>To: ANTHRO-L at LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU
>
>This takes up a couple of themes in other threads, transhuman and should
>deaf kids be augmented with technology.  A hypothetical, if sexual
>orientation is in fact shown to be genetic in large part should/will there
>be a call for a cure in the same manner as for any other genetic differenc
>usually defined as "disorder" such as some forms of deafness and blindness,
>or more distinctly such as the "boy in a bubble"  absence of immunity or
>hemophilia?  And this has to do with gay sheep exactly how?  Read on:
>
>NY Times
>
>                 Of Gay Sheep, Modern Science and Bad Publicity
>
>    By JOHN SCHWARTZ
>
>    Charles Roselli set out to discover what makes some sheep gay. Then the
>    news media and the blogosphere got hold of the story.
>
>    Dr. Roselli, a researcher at the Oregon Health and Science University,
>    has searched for the past five years for physiological factors that
>    might explain why about 8 percent of rams seek sex exclusively with
>    other rams instead of ewes. The goal, he says, is to understand the
>    fundamental mechanisms of sexual orientation in sheep. Other researchers
>    might some day build on his findings to seek ways to determine which
>    rams are likeliest to breed, he said.
>
>    But since last fall, when People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
>    started a campaign against the research, it has drawn a torrent of
>    outrage from animal rights activists, gay advocates and ordinary
>    citizens around the world all of it based, Dr. Roselli and colleagues
>    say, on a bizarre misinterpretation of what the work is about.
>
>    The story of the gay sheep became a textbook example of the distortion
>    and vituperation that can result when science meets the global news
>    cycle.
>
>    The news media storm reached its zenith last month, when The Sunday
>    Times in London published an article under the headline Science Told:
>    Hands Off Gay Sheep. It asserted, incorrectly, that Dr. Roselli had
>    worked successfully to cure homosexual rams with hormone treatments, and
>    added that critics fear that the research could pave the way for
>    breeding out homosexuality in humans.
>
>    Martina Navratilova, the tennis star who is both openly gay and a PETA
>    ally, wrote in an open letter that the research can only be surmised as
>    an attempt to develop a prenatal treatment for sexual conditions.
>
>    The controversy spilled into the blog world, with attacks on Dr.
>    Roselli, his university and Oregon State University, which is also
>    involved in the research. PETA began an e-mail campaign that the
>    universities say resulted in 20,000 protests, some with language like
>    you are a worthless animal killer and you should be shot, I hope you
>    burn in hell and please, die.
>
>    The news coverage, which has been heaviest in England and Australia,
>    focused on smirk and titillation and, of course, puns. Headlines
>    included Ewe Turn for Gay Rams on Hormones and Hes Just Not That Into
>    Ewe.
>
>    In recent weeks, the tide has begun to turn, with Dr. Roselli and Jim
>    Newman, an Oregon Health and Science publicist, saying they have been
>    working to correct the record in print and online. The university has
>    sent responses to senders of each PETA-generated e-mail message.
>
>    Dr. Roselli, whose research is supported by the National Institutes of
>    Health and is published in leading scientific journals, insists that he
>    is as repulsed as his critics by the thought of sexual eugenics in
>    humans. He said human sexuality was a complex phenomenon that could not
>    be reduced to interactions of brain structure and hormones.
>
>    On blogs where attacks have appeared, the researchers point out that
>    many of the accusations, like The Sunday Timess assertion that the
>    scientists implant devices in the brains of the sheep, are simply false.
>
>    The researchers acknowledge that the sheep are killed in the course of
>    the research so their brain structure can be analyzed, but they say they
>    follow animal welfare guidelines to prevent suffering.
>
>    The authors of the Sunday Times article, Chris Gourlay and Isabel
>    Oakeshott, referred questions to a managing editor, who they said was
>    traveling and could not be reached.
>
>    Dr. Roselli and Mr. Newman persuaded some prominent bloggers, including
>    Andrew Sullivan, who writes an online column for Time, to correct
>    postings that had uncritically quoted The Sunday Timess article. They
>    also found an ally in the blog world: a scientist who writes under the
>    pseudonym emptypockets and has taken up Dr. Rosellis cause. The blogger,
>    who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he said a public stand
>    could hurt his career, said he had been cheered by the number of
>    bloggers who dropped their opposition when presented with the facts.
>
>    Ms. Navratilova, who also received a response from the university, said
>    she remained unconvinced.
>
>    The more we play God or try to improve on Mother Nature, the more damage
>    we are doing with all kinds of experiments that either have already
>    turned or will turn into nightmares, she wrote in an e-mail reply to a
>    reporters query. How in the world could straight or gay sheep help
>    humanity?
>
>    In an interview, Shalin Gala, a PETA representative working on the sheep
>    campaign, said controlling or altering sexual orientation was a natural
>    implication of the work of Dr. Roselli and his colleagues.
>
>    Mr. Gala, who asked that he be identified as openly gay, cited the news
>    release for a 2004 paper in the journal Endocrinology that showed
>    differences in brain structure between homosexual and heterosexual
>    sheep.
>
>    The release quoted Dr. Roselli as saying that the research also has
>    broader implications for understanding the development and control of
>    sexual motivation and mate selection across mammalian species, including
>    humans.
>
>    Mr. Newman, who wrote the release, said the word control was used in the
>    scientific sense of understanding the bodys internal controls, not in
>    the sense of trying to control sexual orientation.
>
>    Its discouraging that PETA can pick one word, try to add weight to it or
>    shift its meaning to suggest that you are doing something that you
>    clearly are not, he said.
>
>    Dr. Roselli said that merely mentioning possible human implications of
>    basic research was wildly different from intending to carry the work
>    over to humans.
>
>    Mentioning human implications, he said, is in the nature of the way we
>    write our grants and talk to reporters. Scientists who do basic research
>    find themselves in a bind, he said, adding, We have been forced to draw
>    connections in a way that we can justify our research.
>
>    As for whether the deaths of the sheep are justified, he said, why would
>    you pick on a guy whos killing maybe 18 sheep a year, when theres maybe
>    four million killed for food and clothing in this country?
>
>    Paul Root Wolpe, a professor of psychiatry at the University of
>    Pennsylvania and a senior fellow at the universitys Center for
>    Bioethics, said that although he supported Dr. Rosellis research, Im not
>    sure I would let him off the hook quite as easily as he wants to be let
>    off the hook.
>
>    By discussing the human implications of the research, even in a somewhat
>    careful way, Dr. Roselli opened the door to the reaction, Dr. Wolpe
>    said, and he has to take responsibility for the public response.
>
>    If the mechanisms underlying sexual orientation can be discovered and
>    manipulated, Dr. Wolpe continued, then the argument that sexual
>    orientation is based in biology and is immutable evaporates.
>
>    The prospect of parents eventually being able to choose not to have
>    children who would become gay is a real concern for the future, Dr.
>    Wolpe said. But he added, This concern is best addressed by trying to
>    change public perceptions of homosexuality rather than stop basic
>    science on sexuality.
>
>//     Unsubscribe/suspend (NOMAIL), INDEX or DIGEST modes...       \\
>|  http://listserv.acsu.buffalo.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=anthro-l&A=1  |
>\\   Archives: http://listserv.buffalo.edu/archives/anthro-l.html   //

**********
Dit bericht is verzonden via de informele D66 discussielijst (D66 at nic.surfnet.nl).
Aanmelden: stuur een email naar LISTSERV at nic.surfnet.nl met in het tekstveld alleen: SUBSCRIBE D66 uwvoornaam uwachternaam
Afmelden: stuur een email naar LISTSERV at nic.surfnet.nl met in het tekstveld alleen: SIGNOFF D66
Het on-line archief is te vinden op: http://listserv.surfnet.nl/archives/d66.html
**********