Since it is relatively short I decided to post the entire article. In the past 20 years the techniques of genetics and molecular biology have converged to provide both a remarkably detailed understanding of the genes that define the molecular composition of any organism and the ability to transfer genes from one species to another. There is no doubt about the importance of the insights that have resulted from this increased genetic and molecular focus. The problem is that the claims made for these revelations are frequently so misleading and distorted that the whole field becomes tarnished by exaggeration and real scientific problems are obscured.
Biology then suffers.
This collection of chromosomes in the fertilised egg constitutes the complete set of instructions for development, determining the timing and details of the formation of the heart, the central nervous system, the immune system, and every other organ and tissue required for life. A colleague in the States who is a firm believer in the importance of genes in development and evolution says he uses the Delisi quotation in his developmental biology class to show the stupidity of the reductionist paradigm. So biology is a broad church that contains many points of view. But the most prominent public voices present the reductionist position. For him the genes define the essence of life and the organism is just a survival machine built by genes for their own perpetuation.