(Article From) National Post Vol 1 No.253 , Aug 19, 1999 Personality Can Be Transplanted Researchers Say SHY MOUSE MADE SOClABLE Discovery raises hope of gene psychiaty for humans ------------------------- BY BRAD Evenson For the first time, researchers have transformed the personality of a mouse with a gene taken from another creature. U.S. scientists have changed an antisocial mouse into a more sociable animal by injecting it with a gene from a Prairie vole, a creature known for its sociability and fidelity. The study, reported today in the journal Nature, raises the possibility of using genes to heal such psychiatric disorders in humans as autism, schizophrenia, rourette's syndrome and Alzheimer's disease. However, critics fear it could be used to "correct" social behaviours such as homosexuality that some may consider undesirable. What'll be next? asked one medical ethicist. "Philandering? Leering?" The transplanted gene is one that causes nerve cells in the brains of male creatures to grow receptors for a hormone called vasopressin. For years, neuroscientists have been interestecl in the role vasopressin plays in bonding and attachment. In most species, it controls kidney function in both males and females. But in males, the hormone also triggers receptors in the brain that control "macho" behaviour. Male hamsters injected with vasopressin will attack other males. Male birds will sing. In Prairie voles, it causes males to bond with females and nurture their offspring. "Whatever is the typical male behaviour of that species, in many cases, vasopressin is involved in it," said Dr. Larry Young, the behavioural endocrinologist at F.mory University in Atlanta, Ga., who did the research. "What vasopressin would do in human males is an interesting question. Would it make the males more monogamous and more interested in their mates and families? Or would it make them more interested in looking for other mates? We just don't know what vasopressin is doing in humans. But these voles really beg the question to do that research: However, like men, not all voles behave the same way. Prairie voles are monogamous and social creatures. But a close cousin, the montane vole, is polygamous and a loner. Dr. Young said the behavioural differences in the two related species can be traced to a gene mutation that changes the pattern of where the vasopressin receptors exist in the brain. Could changing the pattern of receptors also change behaviour? To find out, Dr. Young and psychiatrist Dr. Tom Insel implanted the receptor gene from a Prairie vole into embryos of laboratory mice known to be unsociable with females. The result was dramatic. "The transgenic mice became almost infatuated with the female that was placed in the cage," said Dr. Young. "They were just very eager to go over and smell and lick, grope and stay in close contact with that female." Geneticists believe what appears like a modest change in brain chemistry has fascinating implications. "It actually looks like it's a small manipulation but actually it's fairly large," said Dr. Manuel Castro, a genetics researcher at the Montreal Neurological Institute. You're changing the whole expression of where the receptor is, and it's going to be affecting parts of the brain where normally it wouldn't act." Dr. Castro thinks the implications for gene psychiatry" are profound, since the brains of mice, voles and humans are structurally quite similar. While no "map" now exists to show the locations of vasopressin receptors in the human brain, scientists have already mapped the brain of a monkey. Dr. Paul Rubinstein, a U.S. ethicist, said he worries about how this technology will be applied. "This is not like Prozac, which wears off. We are talking about changing the architecture of a brain. Irreversible. What happens if we don't like the transformed male? What happens if he doesn't like himself?" Dr. Young acknowledged there is potential for misuse of his discovery, but he prefers to talk about the good it could do. "It may be useful for correcting psycho pathologies," he said. "But I have a lot more confidence in the society than to think that we would use [it] to modify individual differences in what we consider to be the normal range of social behaviour." Dr. Young said since diseases like autism are characterized by abnormal social attachments, changing the brain chemistry to boost bonding behaviour might be a potential therapy. This could be a place to start," Dr. Young said. National Post

Message dictated to Rael by the Elohim on his second meeting (Oct 7, 1975): Human Justice HUMAN laws, as already stated, are essential. But they must be improved upon because they do not take love and fraternity suffciently into consideration. The death penalty must be abolished because no individual has the right to kill another coldly in a premeditated, organised manner. Until the time comes when, through science, society is able to control the violence that occurs in some people and can cure them of their illness? you will keep criminals apart from society. Then give them the love that they have lacked, while trying to make them understand the monstrous nature of their actions. Give them also the desire to redeem themselves. Do not mix hardened criminals - who are suffering from an illness that can be contagious - with people who have merely committed petty offences. That way you will avoid contaminating the lesser offenders. Never forget that all criminals are sick, and always consider them as such. We are shocked when we remember that once upon a time we used to suffocate people between mattresses if they suffered from fits of hysteria. Some day when we are able to cure and, more importantly, prevent, the sickness of crime, we will be just as shocked when we look back at how we used to execute criminals. Forgive those who have done you harm unintentionally and bear no grudge against those who have willingly done you harm. They are ill, for one must be ill to harm one's neighbour. Besides? think how unfortunate those people are, who do harm others, because they will not have the right to eternal life in the gardens of the Elohim. But if someone wants to harm you or those you love, try to subdue them. If you cannot, then you have the right to defend yourself to save your own life or the lives of your loved ones. However, never strike with the intention to kill, even in legitimate defence. Try only to render the person harmless - by knocking him or her out, for example. If the blow you give turns out to be fatal, you have nothing to blame yourself for, as long as you did not have the intention to kill. You will subdue violent people by force, and, if necessary, by direct action. Violent behaviour is intolerable, and you will not tolerate it, even if you have to forcibly restrain violent people. But always use a non-violent force, that is to say, a balanced force applied without malicious intent, sufficient only to overcome those who try to do harm. Any threat of violence should be treated as seriously as an actual violent deed. To threaten violence is to think it possible, and to see it as an acceptable way of achieving one's goals. A person capable of threatening another with violence is as dangerous as someone who has already committed a violent act. Until we can find a medical cure for those who make such threats, they must be kept outside society, and we must try to make them understand that their behaviour is dreadful. When dealing with those who take hostages, think first of the lives of innocent people who are not in the hands of the hostage-takers. People who take hostages are sick and you should not give them what they demand. Society in fact must never give in to them because by doing so you encourage other criminals to copy such actions and give credence to their threats. All human beings must have equal rights and opportunities at birth, whatever race they may be. Discriminate against fools, however, whatever the colour of their skin. All the races that populate the Earth were created by the Elohim, and must be equally respected.

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