Deoxyribonucleic Acid Trip
By Gina Maranto,
New York Times
| 08. 28. 2002
Book review of Gregory Stock,
Redesigning Humans: Our Inevitable
Genetic Future.
GREGORY STOCK has written an enthusiastic book in support of
germ-line manipulations -- that is, making genetic modifications
to eggs, sperm and embryos that can be passed on to future generations.
Like previous explorations of the subject by the ethicist Joseph
F. Fletcher, the lawyer John Robertson and the biologist James
Watson, among others, ''Redesigning Humans: Our Inevitable Genetic
Future'' serves as an apologia for those scientists and physicians
who are already edging toward such work in a piecemeal fashion
in research labs and in vitro fertilization clinics around the
world. It advocates the wholesale adoption of genetic manipulations
with the purpose of finally taking control of human evolution.
This, the author writes, ''is the ultimate expression and realization
of our humanity.''
Because of the breadth of his scientific knowledge and his
considerable flair as a writer, Stock -- who heads the program
on medicine, technology and society at the School of Medicine
of the University of California, Los Angeles -- is a forceful
advocate. First and foremost...
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