Last June, with much fanfare, scientists with the taxpayer-supported Human Genome Project, working with the private Celera Genomics of Rockville, Md., announced that they had completed a working draft of a genetic blueprint for a human being. That was followed in February by disclosure of the first round of more detailed analyses of this gene research. Already it is possible to insert foreign DNA into mice, pigs and sheep. The obstacles to inserting them in humans are mainly technical ones. At this point in human knowledge, it could lead to mutations.
Several techniques are under development to try to avoid that, however.
For the near and midterm future, we're looking at science fiction. To University of Washington professor Phil Bereano, among others, now is the time for us to talk about the ethical and societal implications of this Brave New World. But there is no shortage of opposition to human engineering. The San Francisco-based Exploratory Initiative on the New Human Genetic Technologies seeks, among other things, to alert a largely unwitting public to what is going on. We should have the maturity and wisdom to ban the modification of the genes we pass to our children.