Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
The temptation has been to use knowledge to return the environment to
its beneficent state—in other words, to build a second nature that serves
us as well as Eden did. This goal remained beyond human reach as long
as we had eaten only from the Tree of Knowledge. One can hardly
ponder the possibilities and the punishments that may await us as we
nibble from the Tree of Life.
Notes
The author gratefully acknowledges the support of a grant from the program
for Ethical, Legal, and Social Implications of the Human Genome Project of
the National Institutes of Health. The views expressed are those of the author
and not of any funding agency. David Wasserman contributed suggestions,
criticisms, and guidance at every step in this essay, which makes him in effect
coauthor.
1. Eric S. Lander, “In Wake of the Genetic Revolution, Questions about Its
Meaning,”
New York Times
, September 12, 2000, F5.
2. Paul Ramsey,
Fabricated Man: The Ethics of Genetic Control
(New Haven,
CT: Yale University Press, 1970), 105.
3. Sean M. Fagan,
Does Morality Change
? (Dublin, Ireland: Gill and
Macmillan, 1997), 27.
4. “Only Connect,”
Economist
, July 1-7, 2000, 8-11.
5. Nicholas Wade, “Genome Analysis Shows Humans Survive on Low Number
of Genes,”
New York Times
, February 11, 2001, A1.
6. Mildred K. Cho, David Magnus, Arthur L. Caplan, Glen McGee, and the
Ethics of Genomics Group, “Ethical Considerations in Synthesizing a Minimal
Genome,”
Science
286, no. 5447 (December 10, 2000): 2087-2090.
7. For further discussion, see Robert Cook-Deegan,
The Gene Wars: Science,
Politics, and the Human Genome
(New York: W. W. Norton, 1996); Tristram
H. Engelhardt, “Germline Genetic Engineering and Moral Diversity: Moral
Controversies in a Post-Christian World,”
Social Philosophy and Policy
13,
no. 2 (Summer 1996): 47-62; and Joseph Fletcher,
Humanhood: Essays in Bio-
medical Ethics
(Buffalo, NY: Prometheus Books, 1979).
8. Jon Turney,
Frankenstein's Footsteps: Science, Genetics, and Popular Culture
(New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1998).
9. Cited in Marcia Barinaga, “Asilomar Revisited: Lessons for Today?”
Science
287 (2000), 1584.
10. Thomas H. Murray, “Genetic Exceptionalism and 'Future Diaries': Is
Genetic Information Different from Other Medical Information?” in
Genetic
Secrets: Protecting Privacy and Confidentiality in the Genetic Era
, ed. Mark A.
Rothstein (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1997), 61.
