Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Conclusion
in an interview for a film titled
The Origin of Species,
from the Great Books
series, evolutionary biologist and geneticist George Gaylord simpson ex-
pressed feelings of reservation but also certainty about the eventual eu-
genic use of human genetic engineering. his words express concern, the
importance of knowledge, and inevitability about our future use of bio-
technology:
i am pretty sure that if we survive, if we do not destroy ourselves
with pollution, atomic war, and so on, we will sooner or later wish
to take control of our own evolution. But i hope we do not do it too
soon. i mean, at the moment we are far too ignorant, both of genetics
and of what we really want, to tinker with our own evolution. so i'm
not urging eugenic measures upon us. i'm really not. i hope we will
not do that. But ultimately i'm sure we will. What we shall decide
we want, of course, is up to our great-great-great-grandchildren. But
they will take this on. (Great Books 1993)
if simpson is right, the activities of our great-great-great-grandchildren
will be consistent with the view of ifteenth-century philosopher Pico
della mirandola, whose words introduced this topic and who saw human-
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