Ethnic weapon

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The term ethnic weapon or biogenic weapon describes a hypothetical sub-form of biological weapons , the effectiveness of which is supposed to be aimed at a certain ethnic group . Such weapons should be made possible by genetic differences between members of different ethnic groups.

There is no consensus in research on the possibility of and the threat posed by ethnic weapons, Carina Dennis explains that “most experts believe that the excitement about biotechnological weapons would outweigh the threat”, but warns against realistic ones Hazards. A study by the Sunshine Project published in 2003 also warned against the possible uses of ethnic weapons.

Basics

For the development of ethnic weapons, alleles must first exist that are significantly present in one group and cannot or can hardly be found in another group. These genes must then be usable for the development of biological weapons. Research questions whether these conditions are met. According to the Guardian , molecular biologist Kathryn Nixdorff said that the development of ethnic weapons was unlikely for various reasons. “It has been suggested in various reports that races do not exist from a genetic perspective; there is generally a higher genetic variability within a group than between ethnic groups. "

In contrast, the Sunshine Project describes ethnic weapons as an already realistic threat and refers, among other things, to a study on SARS diseases in Taiwan. The Marie Lins working group came to the following results: “Densely populated regions with a genetically South Asian population seem to be more affected by the spread of SARS infection. Until recently, no credible SARS patients were found in the indigenous Taiwanese population, which differs genetically from the general Taiwanese population in that they do not have the human leukocyte antigen HLA-B * 4601 but have a high density of HLA- B * 1301. “According to the Sunshine Project, these results show that the development of ethnic weapons is a realistic possibility. The potential danger posed by such weapons was also briefly addressed by former US Secretary of Defense William Cohen .

history

Ethnic weapons were discussed as early as the 1970s. In the Military Review magazine, Carl A. Larson speculated about the uses of ethnic weapons. The USA investigated the applicability of the San Joaquin Valley fever for these purposes, since African-Americans and Filipinos were generally more susceptible to the pathogen Coccidioides immitis than Americans of European descent.

Under the code name Project Coast , the South African apartheid government pursued the armament with chemical and biological weapons from 1983 . While at the beginning only defense measures against chemical and biological weapons were to be developed, later research on ethnic weapons was also carried out.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ "Most experts feel that the hype surrounding bioengineered weapons still outweighs the threat" in: Carina Dennis: " The bugs of war ", in: Nature , 2001, pp. 232-235
  2. ↑ Study of the Sunshine Project (PDF; 188 kB) ( Memento of the original from December 17, 2003 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.sunshine-project.de
  3. ↑ “It has been pointed out in several reports that races do not exist from a genetic perspective; there is generally more genetic variation within groups than between groups. "David Hearst: Smart bio-weapons are now possible , The Guardian, May 20, 2003
  4. ↑ "Densely populated regions with genetically related southern Asian populations appear to be more affected by the spreading of SARS infection. Up until recently, no probable SARS patients were reported among Taiwan indigenous peoples who are genetically distinct from the Taiwanese general population, have no HLA-B * 4601 and have high frequency of HLA-B * 1301. "in: Marie Lin et al: "Association of HLA class I with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus infection", in: BMC Medical Genetics , 2003, 4: 9
  5. ^ DoD News Briefing: Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen , April 28, 1997
  6. ↑ Netzeitung: Ethnic weapons are already feasible ( memento of November 3, 2003 in the Internet Archive ) , 2003, accessed on May 2, 2010
  7. ↑ History of South Africa: Code name "Project Coast" ( Memento of the original from December 9, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed April 25, 2010  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.geschichte-suedafrika.de