Global challenges, global opportunities:

Latin America

Carlos Andrés BarragánUC Davis

Center for Genetics & Society MeetingTarrytown NY, July, 2011

Abstract:

In this paper I will draw on recent events taking place in different Latin American countries (Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru respectively) in order to situate general challenges set in motion by human biotechnologies in the region. Although a main socio-political concern still lingers around the constitution of vulnerable populations and key aspects of scientific research and practice such as informed consent, new layers of complexity have been emerging as the production and consumption of genetic information grows. Some of these layers are use of human biotechnologies to pursue social justice and reparation; the reshaping of cultural, political, and biological identities both through the appropriation and contestation of human genetic information; and finally, the question of governance, in some cases represented by the ambiguity, lack, or excess of national and international policies over a fast-changing set of scientific discourses and practices.

 keywords: Latin America; biotechnology; governance; social justice;

Argentina: DNA, personal privacy & social justice

June, 2011Marcela and Felipe Noble Herrera, heirs of the news empire “El Clarín” were ordered to submit DNA samples for the second time to establish if they were children of detainees killed by the Argentinean military regime in 1970s (the ‘Dirty War’). The test results came again negative when compared with the data base built by relatives of the disappeared (Banco Nacional de Datos Genéticos).

Photo: Associated Press, AP

Brazil: Race, affirmative action, & DNA

January, 2007

Identical twins, Alan and Alex Teixeira applied

to Universidade de Brasilía, with the

hope of getting admission through

the quotas reserved for black individuals.

Using photographs the ‘expert committee’

considered that Alan was black, and

therefore admitted; Alex was classified to

be white, and his admission was

denied.

Colombia: DNA, disembodied identities & biological

capital

June, 1998Indígena Arhuaco being sampled by researchers of the Instituto de Genética Humana (IGH). Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia. ca. 1994Movimiento Autoridades indígenas de Colombia has been proposing since then a moratorium act against biotechnological research within their territories.

Banking of ‘Colombian indigenous’ biological samples at Coriell Cell Repositories (CCR) and at the HGDP / CEPH.

ca. 1994

Ecuador: Social movements & reproductive health

January, 2011Ironic appropriation of Chevron’s public relations campaign in Ecuador. The company was sentenced by an Ecuadorian court to pay around 10 million dollars (in first instance) for damages to human health and the environment. Chevron considered the decision “illegitimate and unenforceable” and is preparing its appeal in Ecuador and preventing its enforcement in the US.

Peru: Ancient DNA, informed consent & governance

May, 2011The Q’eros community in

Cuzco, Peru and local officials complained and blocked a plan to collect DNA by national and

international researchers working in partnership with

the Genographic Project. Some indigenous leaders pointed out

that the failure to follow local regulations and the

consecution of proper consents transgresses their

political autonomy. Author: “ensblue3022” at http://www.flickr.com