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BOOK REVIEW The Code of Codes. By Daniel J. Kevles and LeRoy Hood. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1992. Pp. 397. $29.95 (paper). In the first group of seven essays, biomedical and basic scientists paint a rosy future for the Human Genome Project. In the second group of seven essays, the ethicists and alarmists view the future with fear and trepidation. Genetic screening will reveal future mutants who will be at risk and may not get insurance , medical coverage, or certain jobs. Gene therapy will eventually lead to human experiments. The financial rewards of the medical biotechnology industry could fuel legislative pressure to loosen regulatory controls. The essays are grouped to provide background (I. History, Politics, and Genetics ), expectations (II. Genetics, Technology, and Medicine), and social impact (III. Ethics, Law, and Society). The impact of the genetic revolution on ethics, law, and society is presented and discussed in depth from different points of view. The essayists are commended for their effort to reach the "people," who will, by their acceptance or rejection, influence the legislation that will inevitably accompany the successful conclusion of the Human Genome Project. The essay that includes DNA fingerprinting as a forensic tool is informative, and the technique 's shortcomings are presented in detail. The essay that includes the search for the mutant gene responsible for Huntington's disease is an exciting story of scientific ingenuity, serendipity, and stubbornness. The last seven essays recall the societal fallout following the successful detonation of the A and H bombs and the construction of commercial nuclear reactors. Now we have to cope with nuclear waste and the China Syndrome. There will likely be a comparable fallout when the Human Genome Project succeeds. The Human Genome Project has become biology's entry into Big Science, measured in billions of dollars in this and other countries. Big Biology could produce a crisis in federal funding oflittle biologists and siphon future biologists and biochemists into gene cloning and nucleotide sequencers. The thrust of the Project is the sequencing of the nucleotides of each of the 22 autosomes and the X and Y sex chromosomes. It is estimated that approximately 97 percent of human DNA is junk, not coding for genes. We are currently witnessing a Klondike rush to isolate and to sequence specific genes whose mutant alleles result in human genetic diseases. It is doubtful that billions of dollars would be funded to sequence the DNA of a species other than Homo sapiens in which 97 percent of the nucleotides is junk. Permission to reprint a book review printed in this section may be obtained only from the author. 312 Book Review What is the intrinsic value of sequencing all of the human DNA? This is really a question for geneticists anticipating the opening of a new continent. There is no way to predict the ultimate benefits for medicine. Diagnostic tools and methods for introducing normal alleles in mutants will be the basis offinancial returns for industry and medical services, respectively. This relatively inexpensive book should be read—thoughtfully. While the first group of essays may require more genetic and molecular biology than the average reader commands, the other essays are well worth careful reading. The problems are clearly presented. E. D. Garber Department of Ecology and Evolution University of Chicago Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, 36, 2 ¦ Winter 1993 313 ...

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