Brussels, 27/04/2000 (Agence Europe) - Presenting to the press the high-level scientific group on bioscience issues, Commissioner Philippe Busquin underlined the importance of involving scientists more closely in debate on the life sciences and multiplying efforts of communication so that research in this area will be better understood and accepted by citizens.
The group is chaired by Professor Axel Kahn (Institut Cochin de Génétique moléculaire, Paris) and includes ten members: Tom Blundell (Cambridge University), Patrick Cunningham (Trinity College, Dublin), Derek Burke (Cambridge), Anne McLaren (Wellcome CRC Institute, Cambridge), Leonardo Santi (Centro di Biotecnologie Avanzate, Genoa), Hans Wigzell (Karolinska Institute, Stockholm), Rolf Zinkernagel (Institut d'immunologie expérimentale de l'Höpital universitaire, Zurich), Victor De Lorenzo (Centro Nacional de Biotecnologia; Madrid), Marc Van Montagu (Department of Molecular Genetics, University of Ghent), Ernst_ludwig Winnacker (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Bonn). This group is charged with examining the wide range of challenges and opportunities that the development of biosciences implies for society and it will help the Commission organise the summit on biosciences to be held in November 2000.
Europeans' mistrust of biotechnology is on the rise - Yes to research
for therapeutic purposes, but no to genetic engineering of plants
The fourth Eurobarometer poll of 16,082 persons, conducted in 1999, shows a significant loss of confidence by Europeans in biotechnology. Barely 45% (as opposed to 50% in 1996) of those polled think that biotechnology can improve their way of life. Only 37% (as against 43% in 1996, think genetic engineering can improve their lives. 81% of respondents do not believe they are sufficiently informed. Public confidence resides foremost in consumer organistions (26%), followed by the medical profession (24%) and environmental protection organisations (14%). The use of biotechnology to determine the presence of hereditary diseases is still generally well accepted (63%), but this favourable opinion is down more than ten points from 1996 (74%). The same is true for the use of genetic engineering for the manufacture of medicines and vaccines (57% as against 70% in 1996). Genetic engineering of plants are only accepted by 47% of Europeans (as against 62% in 1996) and only 37% (compared to 50%) find the use of biotechnology in the production of food acceptable. Two thirds of those polled refuse to buy genetically modified fruit, even if it tastes better and more than half are prepared to pay more for non-transgenic foods. Only 22% would be willing to buy cooking oil containing genetically modified soya. 66% of respondents do not want to eat eggs from hens fed transgenic maize.
The same poll also demonstrates that generally accepted ideas die hard: 35% of Europeans believe that "ordinary tomatoes contain no genes but genetically modified ones do"; 64% think that "cloning of living beings creates perfectly identical descendants"; 44% are convinced that "it is the father's genes that determine whether the child will be a girl" (the rate rises to 50% in Greece and France and 51% in Ireland); 29% of EU citizens (33% in Belgium, 35% in Luxembourg and 42% in Greece) still believe that "criminal tendencies are primarily genetically inherited".