It’s October, when I open this email from Ms. Porter:
I am the art director for the Hastings Center Report, the leading academic journal in the field of bioethics. Our journal uses fine artwork to illustrate important articles about ethics in the fields of medicine and biotechnology.
Her introduction is followed by a long list of the wonderful contemporary artists whose work has appeared in the journal.
I am writing to request permission to reproduce your collage Fly (detail), as is shown on the “Today I Am a Fly” page of your website. I would like to use the work on the cover of a special report “Gene Editing in the Wild: Shaping Decisions through Broad Public Deliberation,” which will accompany the November-December 2021 issue of the Hastings Center Report.
This report examines the ethical challenges of so-called “gene drives.” These are scientific interventions that would alter the biology of certain pests, such as mosquitoes and other insects, to drastically reduce their populations in areas where they are harmful to people and the food supply. Are such human interventions ethical, and how much say should the people in these areas have about whether they should take place? What is the best way to accurately inform the public about the positive and negative effects of such interventions?
Ms. Porter informs me, distribution is worldwide.#TodayIAmAFLYWorldwide
A sincere thank you to the Hastings Center, for including my work on the cover of this fine publication.
I spend time with the journal and I pull this quote from an essay titled Giving Voice to the Voiceless in Environmental Gene Editing, on page S66.
If the river could talk, it would say to us, “Let me flow; let me splash; let me do what I should do. This is my blood; this is flowing through my veins. I’m part of an entire environment, and I have a part to play in that.”
—JoAnn Cook, former Grand Traverse Band Tribal Council member1
To read the special report → Wiley Online Library
If you want to know more about the organization or order of a hard copy of this or other Hastings Center Report specials reports → The Hastings Center.
The blog posts titled No Woman is an Island acknowledge the people and/or organizations who support me and the work I do.
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Monica Aissa Martinez 