Outside of officialdom, groups like Greenpeace are turning on the pressure to reopen the negotiations. This is usually the point where journalists and experts sign off with a vague but earnest call for public debate. But the exchange is already underway in the media, religious halls, universities and the corridors of hospitals, where doctors, patients and the families speak and think quietly. This appears to be a step forward, yet there is a new trend among some scientists and bioethicists to denigrate this kind of discussion, especially if it reaches an emotional timbre. Opposition is ascribed to confusion over the issues and to the damage done by the false but pervasive belief that we are the sum of our genes.
Genes are just molecules and early embryos are microscopic balls of cells.
Yet they both hold an iconic power which stems not from confusion, but a gut instinct to respect human dignity.