Progress or Peril? The ethical questions of human DNA mapping
It's one of nature's most enduring mysteries: What makes human
beings tick?Skip to next paragraph Subscribe Today to the
Monitor Why are they unique among living things? Do their genes
really determine who they are? Researchers think they are about
to deliver some answers. When they do, they could change the
world of medicine as profoundly as Copernicus transformed
astronomy or Pasteur redirected biology and agriculture. But
this new world of genetic science is proving a crowded one.
Researchers and entrepreneurs, engaged in a high-stakes race,
are pushing and shoving to conquer the new frontier. It's as if,
three years after Columbus discovered America, the land already
ran thick with explorers, homesteaders, and Gold Rush
entrepreneurs all looking to stake their claim. Amid the
elbowing and jostling, some researchers worry that the
technology of genetic discovery has far outrun the public's
ability to deal with the thicket of ethical issues it wi