Insurance companies already practice genetic discrimination. Equally troubling is the prospect of discriminatory genotyping of racial and ethnic groups. As scientists gain more information on the workings of the human genome, they will succeed in identifying an increasing number of genetic traits that are unique to specific groups, opening the door to the possibility of genetic discrimination against entire peoples. Segregating individuals by their genetic makeup represents a fundamental shift in the exercise of power. Few people would oppose genetic surgery to eliminate crippling diseases or the engineering of new plants and animals to alleviate world hunger.
Biotechnology has much to offer.
But, as with the introduction of other technological innovations throughout history, the final costs have yet to be calculated. From this perspective, we would be hard-pressed to point to any institution or group of individuals we would entrust with decisions of such import. If, however, we were asked whether we would sanction new biotech advances that could enhance the physical, emotional, and mental well-being of our progeny, many of us would not hesitate for a moment to add our support. The biotech revolution is, after all, the ultimate consumer playground, offering us the freedom to recast our own biological endowment and the rest of nature to suit whatever whim might move us. Cell by cell, we may end up surrendering our humanity to the marketplace, bartering ourselves away, a gene at a time, in pursuit of our own engineered perfection.