Axel Kahn
Encyclopedia
Axel Kahn is a French
scientist and geneticist
. He is the brother of the journalist Jean-François Kahn
. He was a member of the French National Consultative Ethics Committee from 1992 to 2004 and worked in gene therapy
. He first entered the INSERM with a specialization in biochemistry
. He was named in 2002 as a counsellor for biosciences and biotechnologies matters by the European Commission
. Head of French laboratories specialized in biomedical sciences between years 1984 and 2007, he has been elected as the President of the University Paris Descartes in December 2007, where he was the sole candidate.
Kahn is known in France for his appearances in the media where he attempts to explain genetics
and ethics
to the public. He uses the title of professor, while he is not. As a civil servant, he was the head of the committee in charge of genetically modified crops for Europe
. According to the journalist Hervé Kempf, he was paid by the company Rhône-Poulenc
after having supported GMC culture in France. Rhône-Poulenc was then the company pushing hardest for GM crops to be grown in France.
s] is of little real interest" and most journals are consulted infrequently.
Kahn has said that Oxford
biologist
Richard Dawkins
's view of the "selfish gene" and genetic determinism
is incorrect, saying: "Personally, I am strongly against the theory of ultra-genetic determinism and the Dawkins theory of 'the egoistic gene'."
In 2004, Kahn signed a petition
and threatened to resign from his post as head of the Paris
-based, publicly financed Cochin Institute, due to cuts in government spending on research.
, saying that they have no therapeutical value, and he is working to outlaw them worldwide through the World Health Organization
.
s as a therapy, "Science
alone is not sufficient for making decisions on stem cells, but we cannot discuss the ethical issues
without clarifying the scientific facts."
Kahn has said that embryo
s which are kept frozen after in vitro fertilization procedures and will be destroyed anyway should be used for scientific advances, because whether or not the embryo has the potential to be human, at that point its only fate is to be used for research or destruction and its only chance to contribute to a "human project" is to help with scientific research. This view (Kahn refers to himself as a humanist
) has been viewed by some religious theorists as disrespectful of the embryos.
, which he saw as an experimental treatment not to be used by those with infertility
, which was not serious enough to justify the risks he perceived the procedure as having.
Kahn has also spoken out against family members carrying children for other family members who are infertile. In speaking out against the case of a 62-year-old Frenchwoman who gave birth after being implanted in the United States
with the sperm
of her brother, Kahn protested what he called "social incest
" and continued, "The most important thing is that doctors were involved in this process, and they did it because they were paid handsomely."
-based reproduction of human beings. This authorisation would entitle some individuals to create human beings in their own image… This kind of subjection -even though it is only corporal- is intolerable. What could give somebody the right to choose the sex
, the eye
s' or hair
's colour, the chin's shape or any other characteristic of a human being? As a consequence, I see no reason for legitimating reproductive cloning. As regards therapeutic cloning, a problem can be pointed out: before making a supposedly therapeutic cloning, a human-cloning technique must be found."
He has also said that therapeutic cloning simply will not work.
in its current location - "Demography, law and the uneasy conscience of the West preclude it." He has called for the boycott of Israeli products.
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
scientist and geneticist
Genetics
Genetics , a discipline of biology, is the science of genes, heredity, and variation in living organisms....
. He is the brother of the journalist Jean-François Kahn
Jean-François Kahn
-Biography:Born in Viroflay, Yvelines, he is the brother of scientist Axel Kahn, and son of a Jewish father and a Catholic mother. Having obtained a degree in history, he started work at a postal sorting office, then at a printing works. He soon moved into journalism and was sent to cover the war...
. He was a member of the French National Consultative Ethics Committee from 1992 to 2004 and worked in gene therapy
Gene therapy
Gene therapy is the insertion, alteration, or removal of genes within an individual's cells and biological tissues to treat disease. It is a technique for correcting defective genes that are responsible for disease development...
. He first entered the INSERM with a specialization in biochemistry
Biochemistry
Biochemistry, sometimes called biological chemistry, is the study of chemical processes in living organisms, including, but not limited to, living matter. Biochemistry governs all living organisms and living processes...
. He was named in 2002 as a counsellor for biosciences and biotechnologies matters by the European Commission
European Commission
The European Commission is the executive body of the European Union. The body is responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the Union's treaties and the general day-to-day running of the Union....
. Head of French laboratories specialized in biomedical sciences between years 1984 and 2007, he has been elected as the President of the University Paris Descartes in December 2007, where he was the sole candidate.
Kahn is known in France for his appearances in the media where he attempts to explain genetics
Genetics
Genetics , a discipline of biology, is the science of genes, heredity, and variation in living organisms....
and ethics
Ethics
Ethics, also known as moral philosophy, is a branch of philosophy that addresses questions about morality—that is, concepts such as good and evil, right and wrong, virtue and vice, justice and crime, etc.Major branches of ethics include:...
to the public. He uses the title of professor, while he is not. As a civil servant, he was the head of the committee in charge of genetically modified crops for Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
. According to the journalist Hervé Kempf, he was paid by the company Rhône-Poulenc
Rhône-Poulenc
-History of the company:The Company was founded in 1928 through the merger of Société des Usines Chimiques du Rhône from Lyon and Établissements Poulenc Frères from Paris founded by Étienne Poulenc, a 19th century Parisian apothecary and brought to prominence by his second and third sons Emile...
after having supported GMC culture in France. Rhône-Poulenc was then the company pushing hardest for GM crops to be grown in France.
Views on science
Kahn, the editor of French biomedical journal (Médecine/Sciences; 2005 Impact Factor: 0.541), said in 1999 that "80 to 90 percent of what is published [in scientific journalScientific journal
In academic publishing, a scientific journal is a periodical publication intended to further the progress of science, usually by reporting new research. There are thousands of scientific journals in publication, and many more have been published at various points in the past...
s] is of little real interest" and most journals are consulted infrequently.
Kahn has said that Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
biologist
Biology
Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...
Richard Dawkins
Richard Dawkins
Clinton Richard Dawkins, FRS, FRSL , known as Richard Dawkins, is a British ethologist, evolutionary biologist and author...
's view of the "selfish gene" and genetic determinism
Genetic determinism
Genetic determinism is the belief that genes determine morphological and behavioral traits and do so with little or no influence from environmental factors....
is incorrect, saying: "Personally, I am strongly against the theory of ultra-genetic determinism and the Dawkins theory of 'the egoistic gene'."
In 2004, Kahn signed a petition
Petition
A petition is a request to do something, most commonly addressed to a government official or public entity. Petitions to a deity are a form of prayer....
and threatened to resign from his post as head of the Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
-based, publicly financed Cochin Institute, due to cuts in government spending on research.
Gene therapies
Kahn is against germline gene therapiesGene therapy
Gene therapy is the insertion, alteration, or removal of genes within an individual's cells and biological tissues to treat disease. It is a technique for correcting defective genes that are responsible for disease development...
, saying that they have no therapeutical value, and he is working to outlaw them worldwide through the World Health Organization
World Health Organization
The World Health Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations that acts as a coordinating authority on international public health. Established on 7 April 1948, with headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, the agency inherited the mandate and resources of its predecessor, the Health...
.
Stem cells
He has said of stem cellStem cell
This article is about the cell type. For the medical therapy, see Stem Cell TreatmentsStem cells are biological cells found in all multicellular organisms, that can divide and differentiate into diverse specialized cell types and can self-renew to produce more stem cells...
s as a therapy, "Science
Science
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
alone is not sufficient for making decisions on stem cells, but we cannot discuss the ethical issues
without clarifying the scientific facts."
Kahn has said that embryo
Embryo
An embryo is a multicellular diploid eukaryote in its earliest stage of development, from the time of first cell division until birth, hatching, or germination...
s which are kept frozen after in vitro fertilization procedures and will be destroyed anyway should be used for scientific advances, because whether or not the embryo has the potential to be human, at that point its only fate is to be used for research or destruction and its only chance to contribute to a "human project" is to help with scientific research. This view (Kahn refers to himself as a humanist
Humanism
Humanism is an approach in study, philosophy, world view or practice that focuses on human values and concerns. In philosophy and social science, humanism is a perspective which affirms some notion of human nature, and is contrasted with anti-humanism....
) has been viewed by some religious theorists as disrespectful of the embryos.
Infertility treatments
In 1995, Kahn was a notable opponent of intracytoplasmic sperm injectionIntracytoplasmic sperm injection
Intracytoplasmic sperm injection is an in vitro fertilization procedure in which a single sperm is injected directly into an egg.-Indications:...
, which he saw as an experimental treatment not to be used by those with infertility
Infertility
Infertility primarily refers to the biological inability of a person to contribute to conception. Infertility may also refer to the state of a woman who is unable to carry a pregnancy to full term...
, which was not serious enough to justify the risks he perceived the procedure as having.
Kahn has also spoken out against family members carrying children for other family members who are infertile. In speaking out against the case of a 62-year-old Frenchwoman who gave birth after being implanted in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
with the sperm
Sperm
The term sperm is derived from the Greek word sperma and refers to the male reproductive cells. In the types of sexual reproduction known as anisogamy and oogamy, there is a marked difference in the size of the gametes with the smaller one being termed the "male" or sperm cell...
of her brother, Kahn protested what he called "social incest
Incest
Incest is sexual intercourse between close relatives that is usually illegal in the jurisdiction where it takes place and/or is conventionally considered a taboo. The term may apply to sexual activities between: individuals of close "blood relationship"; members of the same household; step...
" and continued, "The most important thing is that doctors were involved in this process, and they did it because they were paid handsomely."
Cloning
Kahn has said: "But, from the ethical point of view, I'm totally opposed -for some reasons- to the legitimisation of the cloningCloning
Cloning in biology is the process of producing similar populations of genetically identical individuals that occurs in nature when organisms such as bacteria, insects or plants reproduce asexually. Cloning in biotechnology refers to processes used to create copies of DNA fragments , cells , or...
-based reproduction of human beings. This authorisation would entitle some individuals to create human beings in their own image… This kind of subjection -even though it is only corporal- is intolerable. What could give somebody the right to choose the sex
Gender
Gender is a range of characteristics used to distinguish between males and females, particularly in the cases of men and women and the masculine and feminine attributes assigned to them. Depending on the context, the discriminating characteristics vary from sex to social role to gender identity...
, the eye
Human eye
The human eye is an organ which reacts to light for several purposes. As a conscious sense organ, the eye allows vision. Rod and cone cells in the retina allow conscious light perception and vision including color differentiation and the perception of depth...
s' or hair
Hair
Hair is a filamentous biomaterial, that grows from follicles found in the dermis. Found exclusively in mammals, hair is one of the defining characteristics of the mammalian class....
's colour, the chin's shape or any other characteristic of a human being? As a consequence, I see no reason for legitimating reproductive cloning. As regards therapeutic cloning, a problem can be pointed out: before making a supposedly therapeutic cloning, a human-cloning technique must be found."
He has also said that therapeutic cloning simply will not work.
Political positions
Kahn has said that there can be no lasting state of IsraelIsrael
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
in its current location - "Demography, law and the uneasy conscience of the West preclude it." He has called for the boycott of Israeli products.
Books authored
- Transgenic Plants in Agriculture (1998) (And man in all of this?), by Axel Kahn (with Fabrice Papillon, 2000), pub. Nil, Paris, 2001 (2004) (with Fabrice Papillon, 2005) ("Future is Not Yet Written"), by Axel Kahn and Christian Godin, Stock edition, Paris, 2008, ISBN 2234059755.
Awards/honors
- Lauréat of the Académie Nationale de MédecineAcadémie Nationale de MédecineAcadémie Nationale de Médecine, or National Academy of Medicine was created in 1820 by king Louis XVIII at the urging of baron Antoine Portal. At its inception, the institution was known as the Académie Royale de Médecine...
- Medal of Francophony of the Académie FrançaiseAcadémie françaiseL'Académie française , also called the French Academy, is the pre-eminent French learned body on matters pertaining to the French language. The Académie was officially established in 1635 by Cardinal Richelieu, the chief minister to King Louis XIII. Suppressed in 1793 during the French Revolution,...
- Silver medal of the CNRS
- Etc.
- Doctorat Honoris Causa from the Université Catholique de LouvainUniversité catholique de LouvainThe Université catholique de Louvain, sometimes known, especially in Belgium, as UCL, is Belgium's largest French-speaking university. It is located in Louvain-la-Neuve and in Brussels...
, the University of LiègeUniversity of LiègeThe University of Liège , in Liège, Wallonia, Belgium, is a major public university in the French Community of Belgium. Its official language is French.-History:...
, the Université de MontréalUniversité de MontréalThe Université de Montréal is a public francophone research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It comprises thirteen faculties, more than sixty departments and two affiliated schools: the École Polytechnique and HEC Montréal...
, the Université LavalUniversité LavalLaval University is the oldest centre of education in Canada and was the first institution in North America to offer higher education in French...
and the Université de SherbrookeUniversité de SherbrookeThe Université de Sherbrooke is a large university with campuses located in Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada and Longueuil, a suburb of Montreal approximately west of Sherbrooke. It is one of two universities, and the only French language university, in the Estrie region of Quebec.In 2007, the...
.