Tutu, Human Rights and the Human Genome Project

Last week, Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu by citing his sequenced genome pointed out how ridiculous racism really is. " I am related to the San people, so I am coloured." he said at UWC, poking fun into the current debate about how jobs should be allocated in different regions of the country. (That is, according to national racial demographics and not taking into account regional population differences)
The Human Genome Project (HGP) has provided us with the kind of information that makes me think differently about us human beings. For one thing, despite all our languages, different cultures and allegiances, we are all Africans! I love that about us. Furthermore, the most ancient genes on our planet are carried right here amongst the San people of the Namib.

The HGP was funded because it was marketed as being able to provide insights about non-communicable diseases and it is doing this more and more rapidly and also more cheaply than it did 10 years ago. This history is well documented and if you read the link, you will probably think like I did, that it'd make a terrific movie.

There are however, human rights implications that interest me just as much as the idea that drugs could be designed to counteract my particular version of Parkinson's or Alzheimer's which is probably where I am headed.

One outcome is that the descendants of former slaves can determine what region of the planet their ancestors came from. Slavery robs people of their language, culture and history especially the trade across oceans like that of the Middle Passage which transported masses of Africans across the Atlantic to the Americas and the Caribbean. Luckily no-one can take away the history contained in our genes so that now, for a price, people are able to reconnect to the geography of their origins.

Another world-changing aspect is the Innocence Project. This is an international network of non-profit organisations investigating wrongful convictions. As of 23 January 2011, 266 people previously convicted of serious crimes in the United States had been exonerated by DNA testing. As a result, a number of states have put a moratorium on the death penalty and this week the state of Illinois abolished it. Isn't that extraordinary?