Jose Canseco and Human Genetic Engineering

Recently, Jose Canseco and I were guests on a talk show to discuss gene doping, the genetic equivalent to anabolic steroids - a way to "juice up" to gain a competitive edge. It is possible that in the next few years athletes will be able to enhance their performance by altering their genetic make-ups. Canseco argued that gene doping "is definitely the next big step in evolution." Genetic enhancement, he said, "goes way beyond sports. Imagine an army of a million individuals who can out-think, out-use the environment in the sense of less food, more reaction time, better vision, better physical reaction . . . (T)he human race . . . is going to evolve and no one's gonna stop it."

It's easy to dismiss this as the ramblings of a B-list star struggling to keep himself in the limelight. Indeed, when Canseco released his now infamous "Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant 'Roids, Smash Hits, and How Baseball Got Big," this was most people's response. Yet we have been forced to swallow the bitter truthfulness of Canseco's pill. In the few...