spot blog

The Mouse

I have this image of a mouse on the background of my home page. People sometimes wonder what it's about and there's actually an answer:

It's an "oncomouse". This is a breed of mouse that has been genetically engineered to get cancer very often. Naturally, they are used for cancer research. The genetic code is patented by DuPont and is the source of much controversy. I use the image on my home page not because I object to genetic engineering or to experiments with animals but because I object to the notion of owning a genetic sequence or lineage of creatures.

The mouse looks curious to me, like it is exploring. The mouse represents me (or all of us) of course and so it is both subject and object of life, the grand experiment. Posted by spot at September 20, 2004 12:36 PM