Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
ongoing developments in scientific laboratories will produce a revolution
in society, an upheaval whose consequences will include the radical divi-
sion of the species into superior and inferior genetic classes. Imagining
conditions that he believes will characterize the United States in the year
2350, he writes:
The GenRich—who account for 10 percent of the American population—all
carry synthetic genes. . . . The GenRich are a modern-day hereditary class of
genetic aristocrats.
All aspects of the economy, the media, the entertainment industry, and the
knowledge industry are controlled by members of the GenRich class. . . . In con-
trast, Naturals work as low-paid service providers or as laborers.
6
Silver speculates that by the end of the third millennium, the two
groups will have become “entirely separate species with no ability to
cross-breed, and with as much romantic interest in each other as a
current human would have for a chimpanzee.”
7
For those who think his
vision of the future resembles a bizarre sci-fi screenplay, Silver notes that
his scenario “is based on straightforward extrapolations from our
current knowledge base.” It is “inevitable” that the use of repro-genetic
technologies will change the species in fundamental ways. “There is no
doubt about it. For better
and
worse, a new age is upon us.”
8
When statements of a similar sort were made in earlier decades, the
horrified response would often be: “Aren't the scientists preparing to
'play God'?” And until recently, the common tendency among scientists
was to reassure the public by saying, in effect, “No, we do not intend to
play God at all. What we're actually doing is far more modest.” Today,
however, it appears that a number of scientists—not just zealots like
Stock and Silver but also figures central to the development of bio-
technology—are willing to own up to the godlike implications of their
proposals for human bioengineering. Thus, James Watson, codiscoverer
of the DNA double helix, announced at a scholarly symposium in
1998: “And another thing, because no one has the guts to say it, if we
could make better human beings by knowing how to add genes, why
shouldn't we do it? What's wrong with it?”
9
Addressing members of the
British Parliament in May 2000, Watson exclaimed, “But then, in all
honesty, if scientists don't play God, who will?”
10
Scientific advocates for the radical retailoring of the human species
and “progress” toward a posthuman successor species are not limited
