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PDF hosted at the Radboud Repository of the Radboud University Nijmegen The following full text is a publisher's version. For additional information about this publication click this link. http://hdl.handle.net/2066/35082 Please be advised that this information was generated on 2021-09-26 and may be subject to change. Biotech Pioneers A philosophical inquiry concerning the genetically engineered mouse Ellen ter Gast Biotech Pioneers A philosophical inquiry concerning the genetically engineered mouse Een wetenschappelijke proeve op het gebied van de Natuurwetenschappen, Wiskunde en Informatica Proefschrift ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de Radboud Universiteit van Nijmegen op gezag van de Rector Magnificus prof. mr. S.C.J.J Kortmann volgens besluit van het College van Decanen in het openbaar te verdedigen op maandag 10 december 2007 om 13:30 uur precies door ISBN: 978-90-9022260-8 Ellen ter Gast geboren op 8 februari 1971 RTODTO Amsterdam te ’s Gravenhage Cover: the author in front of Katharina Fritsch’s Mann und Maus at K21 in Düsseldorf. Cover design: Ellen ter Gast, photograph Ingmar H.J. Ploemen, edited by Henk de Boer. Print and layout: Optima Grafische Communicatie, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Typeset in ITC Garamond and Myriad Pro. Copyright © 2007 Ellen ter Gast The printing of this thesis was financially supported by the J.E. Jurriaanse Stichting in RTODTO Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Promotor: Prof. dr H.A.E. Zwart Manuscriptcommissie: Prof. dr R. ten Bos Prof. dr Tj. de Cock Buning Dr C.N. van der Weele To Anne and Else, the greatest joy in my life. Acknowledgements As long as I can remember, I have been fascinated by the nature of living organisms, the mysteries of life, and the way we humans make sense of it. This is why I decided to study both Biology and Philosophy. Entering University in the late 1980s as a student of Biology I soon learned about the revolutionary possibilities of biotechnology. I was absolutely stunned when I found out that human genes could be transferred successfully to a mouse (see below for the drawing I made during class expressing how I imagined such a mouse would look). The question: ‘What impact will biotechnology have on life and nature itself and on our understanding of life and nature?’ has captured me ever since. Therefore, I am very grateful for having had the opportunity to do this philosophical inquiry into the remarkable ‘biotech mouse’, who, as I will argue throughout this book, is the protagonist in the biotech revolu- tion that is taking place right now. My gratitude first and above all is addressed to my professor and super- visor Hub Zwart who 5 years ago offered me a research position at the vii Biotech Pioneers Acknowledgements Department of Philosophy at the Faculty of Science of the Radboud Uni- Images of mice are of crucial importance to my argumentation. I wish to versity in Nijmegen. When I accepted this offer I basically followed my thank the artists Bryan Crockett, Catherine Chalmers and Adam Brandejs intuition. My intuition proved to be right. Hub has always been supportive for their enthusiastic responses to my requests and for the beautiful and enthusiastic about my ideas and plans and gave me the freedom to photographs of their artworks. Likewise, I wish to thank Joe Tsien, Phil follow my own philosophical path. But perhaps, even more important, Leder, Richard Palmiter, Ralph Brinster, Frans van den Bosch and Charlene he always showed confidence in my work and future results. I am also Cooper for the permission to use images of ‘their’ mice. grateful for his close reading of the manuscript; it always led to improve- For helping me out with the ‘finishing touches’ I wish to acknowledge ment. To put it simply: I cannot imagine having had a better academic Henk de Boer for photoshopping the picture for the cover image and supervisor. Patricia Ellman for the correction of the manuscript. Of course, I am also indebted to my other colleagues at the department Thanks also to my two paranimfen Marjolijn Voogel en Susanne van of philosophy, the Centre for Society of Genomics, and ISIS for the friendly de Wateringen who have already shown to understand the importance of atmosphere and lively discussions at department meetings, lunches and their role by asking me that vital question: ‘What do we wear at the public coffee breaks. I would like to thank in particular Pieter Lemmens, Frans defense?’ van Dam, Peter Stegmeier and Martijntje Smits for their supportive and helpful comments on parts of the manuscript. I would also like to thank Last but not least, I wish to thank my parents for being so proud and the members of the task force Science and Society for their financial and Ingmar for his support throughout the whole process and for being so academic support, the supervisory committee, in particular Tjard de Cock patient, very patient. Buning, for input during the start up phase, and Saskia Segers and Marieke van Oostveen for their ‘non-academic’ support and assistance with admin- istrative paperwork. Although my office was at Nijmegen, my base has always been at home in Amsterdam. This is one of the many reasons I enjoy being a member of the workgroup New Representational Forms of The Arts and Genomics Centre (TAGC). The final manuscript has greatly benefited from the monthly discussions in Amsterdam about Art and the Life Sciences with Rob Zwijnenberg, Miriam van Rijsingen, Daniëlle Hofmans, Jenny Boulboullé, Helen Chandler, Cor van der Weele and Anne Kienhuis. In particular, I am much indebted to them for their input to the final versions of the Chapters 3 and 5. A crucial stage in the explorative phase of my research has been the fieldwork I did at the Dutch Cancer Institute. Being able to meet the mice in real flesh and blood (in the literal sense) inspired me to write the book as it now. I wish to thank Marco Breurer and Evert van Garderen for their openness to this ‘ethical experiment’, and Richard van de Berg, Ton Schrauwers, Yvonne van der Peijl-Kempen, Johan Jongsma, Arnoud Lagro, Esmeralda de Jong and Paul Krimpenfort for the ‘guided tours’ in their laboratories and conversations about their work and animals. It is here that my ‘research object’ became real and alive. viii ix Contents Acknowledgements vii Introduction 1 1 The birth of the transgenic laboratory mouse 11 2 Mouse ethics, the taming of a monster 53 3 Playing God or the promise of mouse biotechnology 81 4 The ‘Frankenstein thing’ or the monsters we fear 105 5 ‘Yuk!’ and the aesthetics of mouse biotechnology 135 6 Conclusions: of FutureMice and FutureMen 163 Bibliography 173 Dutch summary – Nederlandse samenvatting 187 xi Introduction “Well it is scary, isn’t it, all this genetic engineering?” “Is it?” “Yeah, you know, messing about with the body. They reckon there’s a gene for intelligence, sexuality-practically everything, you know? Recombinant DNA technology” said the girl using the term cautiously as if testing the water to see how much Marcus really knew. Seeing no recognition in his face she continued with more confidence. “Once you know the restriction enzyme for a particular, like,bit of DNA, you can switch anything on or off, like a bloody stereo. That’s what they are doing to those poor mice. It is pretty fucking scary”.1 Zadie Smith Why a book about mice? What made me, a philosopher and a biologist, decide to write a book on mice? The answer to this question can be found in the quotation cited above, taken from Zadie Smith’s novel White Teeth. In this book one of the characters, Marcus, a scientist, has created FutureMouse©. In this animal he implanted custom-designed genes that can be ‘turned on’ and ‘off’. This gives Marcus the absolute control over its life and death. In collaboration with a novelist, he has written a pop science book called Time Bombs and Body Clocks: Adventures in Our Genetic Future that also includes a chapter on this mouse. The girl who is quoted above is reading this book, unaware that the person she is addressing is one of the authors. While the girl is ‘lecturing’ him about the scary aspects of recombinant DNA technol- ogy, Marcus is wondering why it is that people fail to see his mouse as a laboratory entity that is determining the future of cancer, of reproductive life cycles, of the human life-span and ageing, but rather continue to see it merely as a mouse, an animal. They focus on the mouse ‘as mouse’, in a manner that never failed to surprise him: ‘They seemed unable to think of the animal as a site for experimentation into heredity, into disease, into mortality. The mouseness of the mouse seemed inescapable’ (Smith 2000: 1. Zadie Smith (2000) White Teeth, New York, Vintage Books, p. 345. 1 Biotech Pioneers Introduction 346). This fictitious scene taken from a popular novel illustrates a number of profound philosophical questions. By way of the mouse, biotechnology of interesting aspects of the laboratory mouse. affects what lies at the core of humanity, of what it is to be human. For First of all, it illustrates the different perspectives from which different biologists these mouse technologies offer great possibilities to study the individuals can perceive the genetically engineered mouse. On the one mysteries of life. For philosophers, they are a source of confusion. How hand, we see a girl who is definitely not as hysterical as Marcus takes her does mouse biotechnology affect the way we make sense of life? Are we to be.