-
Introduction
- Indiana University Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
Introduction The call comes into the Ski Patrol at dusk. “Family reports their eleven-year-old son didn’t show up at the end of the day. His friends say he went out of bounds on his snowboard, heading over toward Crystal Cliffs.” The rescue hut bursts into action. The two patrollers assemble their equipment, don heavy clothing, insert communications buttons in their ears, and radio Mountain Rescue for special personnel and a chopper. The last thing they do before grabbing their skis and heading out into the swirling snowstorm is to swallow “boosters”—capsules containing high doses of shortacting , genetically engineered drugs.These drugs are available only to law enforcement, emergency personnel, and others with a special license from the government. Within minutes, the patrollers’ cognitive functioning, physical dexterity, hearing and visual acuity , and physical strength and stamina are increased an average of forty percent. Minutes later they stand atop the cliff face. Staring down, they spot the boy lying on a narrow rock ledge far below them. They radio the helicopter, which homes in on their position and lowers one of its occupants onto the ledge.This individual, a professional 2 Wondergenes mountain rescuer, has undergone genetic engineering to install genes that give her special abilities. Clinging with her specially developed fingers to the icy wall, she quickly diagnoses the child as having a number of life-threatening injuries.The wind is howling, and it would be too dangerous to try to winch the boy back up into the hovering aircraft. So the rescuer bundles him into a collapsible litter and hauls it single-handedly up the sheer face of the cliff. The entire operation takes less than fifteen minutes and saves the child’s life. How realistic is this scenario? Right now it is science fiction. But the chances of it occurring may be greater than you think. The Human Genome Project—the government program to map and sequence human DNA—is almost complete, and work is underway to identify the genes that code for the myriad of inherited human characteristics. At the same time, we are learning how to manipulate these genes—multiplying or canceling their effects or installing entirely new capabilities in an individual’s DNA. Genetically engineered drugs already are widely available, and new ones being tested include drugs to improve mental functioning. Aimed at treating Alzheimer’s disease, these drugs may prove able to enhance cognition in “normal” individuals as well. Genetic tests soon will be developed that can identify embryos or fetuses not just with genetic abnormalities, but with desirable physical or mental traits, enabling parents to decide which ones to implant in the womb or bring to term. Researchers are beginning to experiment with altering human DNA.While the initial efforts are mainly aimed at treating or preventing disease, the same approaches could be used to improve non-disease traits. To be sure, there are many technical hurdles to overcome before we can create genetically enhanced individuals like the ones in the rescue scenario. For example, the Human Genome Project recently has revealed that there are far fewer human genes than expected, which will make it much more difficult to determine how they interact with each other and with the environment to produce human traits. But while this may slow the development of methods for altering human characteristics, it is unlikely to derail them. As one leading geneticist declares: “There are no insurmountable scientific barriers to genetic enhancement.”1 [3.239.59.193] Project MUSE (2024-03-19 09:58 GMT) 3 Introduction The reason is simple but profound. Every day we are witnessing revolutionary breakthroughs that are enabling us to sequence the building blocks of life and begin to understand the mechanisms that regulate them. But the explosion in the science of human genetics is the result not of just one revolution but of two. Coinciding with the revolution in biology is the revolution in computers . Recently, a private company, Celera, accomplished in less than a year what it took a government research consortium ten years to achieve: It by and large sequenced the human genetic code. Celera was able to do this by using not only state-of-the-art molecular science, but the power of supercomputers. In fact, at the time, the Celera project represented the largest private use of supercomputing capacity in the world. A confluence of transformational forces of this magnitude is unprecedented in human history. Think back to little more than twenty...