In a remarkably brief period of time, we have become accustomed to mind-staggering developments in many areas of science and technology. Some of these, such as treatments for cancer, are very encouraging. Others fill us with hesitation. Perhaps for many of us the cloning of a sheep ("Dolly") became a kind of focal point for all our hesitations about genetic engineering: What are the risks? Do they really know what they are doing? How can the technology be abused? A recent patent for a biotechnological process granted to a US seed company, while it has not received the same media attention as Dolly, might be a more significant development in terms of its impact on future human society and on the environment. The possibilities created by the process of genetically modifying plants to produce infertile seeds that are unable to germinate leaves society looking on to see if the potentials of contemporary biotechnology have gone a step to far. This seed sterilization technology poses too many threats to the modern world that banning this technology is the world's only choice.…
