Biochemistry programme co-ordinator at University of Canterbury's Department of Plant & Microbial Sciences, Jack Heinemann says it is "a terrifying reality" that the wonder-drug penicillin is essentially obsolete as a germ-killing drug.

"Despite millions of dollars of research money, we are still no closer to discovering an antibiotic drug which works without making diseases more virulent. In fact, there isn't one single drug in the world today that bacteria aren't resistant to", Dr Heinemann says.

Senior lecturer in the department, Dr Heinemann says people in the Western world are again going to die from diseases like pneumonia, food poisoning and tuberculosis.

"One third of the world's population carries tuberculosis. And a study in 1991 showed that in New York, one-third of those with the disease were resistant to antibiotic treatment."

"We have now learned that the harder we fight bacteria, the more resistant the microbes become and the stronger they get."

"As a result we've turned killer diseases into super-killer diseases."

In a research report, Dr Heinemann says the evolution of better killer diseases has resulted from the technology-led application of antibiotics designed to make extinct the creatures that cause diseases.

"The fundamental flaw in the plan was an unspoken assumption that the biology of microbes could be extrapolated from observations of the biology of beings like us, but not human."

Dr Heinemann says that this anthropomorphism - or the projection of human characters on things not human - has revealed itself in a monumental medical blunder.

"When antibiotics were introduced in clinics after World War Two, occupants of Western societies were saved from infectious diseases caused by microbes.

"But now these diseases are resistant to antibiotics and new drugs are being discovered and tested at a far slower rate than the microbes acquire and distribute resistance genes."

"Technology is losing a race with biology, Dr Heinemann says.

Taken from Christchurch Star, 2 May 1997.

2417: "Animals are created for food clothing and leisure;"
(in other words: for McDonald's, fur coats and bullfights.)
"Animal experiments are morally acceptable."

2418: "One should not give affection to animals. It is unworthy to spend money on them."

I have been fighting these satanic verses since the first day they were published and I am forever grateful that Mobilise! has printed several of my articles on this subject.

As a result many NZAVS members have written to the Vatican and asked to change these paragraphs. Uncountable protest letters have also reached the Pope from all over Europe - and under this pressure, the Vatican has decided to revise certain sections of the Catechism. However, it has never been made clear which of the animal verses will be part of the revision.

The month of August 1997 has been given as an indication for the publication of the revised Catechism in France. As soon as the 800 page book is out, I will immediately inform you concerning all animal related teachings.

If things have not been changed as expected a new, even more aggressive and never-ending campaign will be started by us Catholics against the anti-animal position of the Vatican and we will be grateful for whatever support you can give us.

Hans Fischinger