Genetic science is about to radically alter our lives. Sooner than you can imagine, human beings will be capable of diagnosing their own illnesses, designating the sex of their children, even designing the food they eat -- all as easily as using a cell phone. Now is the time for every one of us to take control of our DNA, and one man is uniquely qualified to show us how: Glenn McGee, bioethicist at the University of Pennsylvania, pioneer in the study of "home genetics," and the acknowledged wunderkind of the exciting world found at the nexus of life science and computer technology.
One of the most respected authorities in the field of genomics -- the study of the genetic "software" inside plants, animals, and us -- McGee takes us on an eye-opening journey behind the headlines and into the heart of this formidable cutting-edge science. Probing the far-ranging ethical and legal implications of genomic research, McGee tackles its most controversial and hotly debated aspects -- from patenting your DNA to genetic engineering at the supermarket -- and explodes unnecessary fears about this wondrous new knowledge.
We live in a brave new world. Beyond Genetics provides us with the knowledge we need to take the right steps forward into tomorrow ... and beyond.
Prominent bioethicist McGee urges readers to get smart about their DNA before it's too late in this genetic answer to Nicholas Negroponte's Being Digital. For instance, the author writes, though we would never leave our ATM code where someone could read it, we "think nothing of leaving bits of blood and tissue in the emergency room of a major hospital that is sure to conduct research on it." In decades past, questions of genetics were answered by "appeals to natural law theory," and often led to discrimination, injustice and even genocide. But the very notion of heredity has become obsolete in the new world McGee describes; instead, scientists are about to offer reproductive choices beyond our imaginings, cure diseases and feed billions more people-all while making astonishing amounts of money from "our" genes. In rapid-fire chapters packed with references to news stories and scientific studies, McGee outlines new developments in genetic testing, gene therapy and genetically modified food organisms. Just as personal computers have brought the digital revolution into our daily lives, home diagnostic kits will let us (or force us to) take charge of our own genes. "You'll update your medicine cabinet the way you update your computer software," writes McGee. Our food, drugs and children will all be subject to genetic analysis and modification. This book is something of a scattered cautionary lecture, veering off into corporate tactics, legalities and personal anecdotes, but McGee makes his point in the end, offering a heads-up assessment of how advances in genetic research are sure to complicate our lives. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Glenn Edwards McGee is one of the best known bioethicists in the world. He is the John B. Francis Endowed Chair in Bioethics at the Center for Practical Bioethics, and the Editor in Chief of The American Journal of Bioethics (AJOB), the highest impact bioethics, health services, health economics or health law journal in the English language [ISI Impact Factor of 4.37], and heads the new AJOB family of Journals, including AJOB Primary Research and AJOB Neuroscience. He has served as a faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania (1995-2005), UMass, and other institutions and held tenured professorships in medicine and medical ethics and two endowed chairs. Glenn received his Ph.D. at Vanderbilt University and his B.A. at Baylor, where he was named Outstanding Young Alumnus in 2000, and one of the "top 150 graduates of all time" in 2008. Glenn was named one of the "10 most influential people in the New York Capital" in 2008, and was named to the top 40 under 40 in both Albany (2007) and Philadelphia (2004). Seed magazine described him in 2004 as "America's most imaginative young academic." Science noted in 2007 that Dr. McGee's work was one of the prime reasons for the entry of Upstate New York onto the radar screen of prestigious biomedicine.
Dr. McGee has been quoted about his research, which focuses on the family, genetics and reproduction, in most world newspapers. He has been a guest on most U.S. national television and radio news programs, such as Today, Fresh Air, Oprah, Nightline, and ABC World News Tonight, and has co-authored with a number of clinical and scientific luminaries such as Dr. Ruth, Stanley Greenspan, and Ian Wilmut, cloner of Dolly. He is a commentator for MSNBC News, for whom he authored a column from 2000-2003, and he has authored a monthly column from 2005-2007 for The Scientist, the most widely read magazine for scientists, as well as a syndicated column from 2005-2007 in a Hearst newspaper.
Dr. McGee's recent work has focused on ethical issues in autism, but he has authored more than 150 articles on a number of issues in bioethics for medical, legal, business and scientific journals, such as Science, Nature Medicine, and JAMA. His books include Who Owns Life?, Pragmatic Bioethics, The Human Cloning Debate, The Perfect Baby, and most recently Beyond Genetics, a New York Times bestseller about biotechnology and society. His work has ranged widely across many issues and has been widely cited. It has included a number of articles whose influence on the field of bioethics is acclaimed uniformly, including work in the areas of compensation of research subjects, models for parenting and enhancement, a pragmatic theory of bioethics, the patenting and sale of biological materials, ethical issues in tissue and gene banks, and ethical issues in stem cell research. He has received more than $6 million in grant funding from the Greenwall Foundation, the US Department of Education, National Institutes of Health, Haas Foundation and others.
Dr. McGee is very active in public policy. He has co-authored the text that became bills or stem cell legislation in four states, cloning legislation in seven, and has spoken for kings and presidents in eight nations on stem cell research including Dubai. Dr. McGee has delivered more than 80 named or endowed lectureships around the world, and hundreds of major lectures. He has testified before the House and Senate and multiple committees of a number of states in the U.S.. He has taught bioethics to incoming members of the U.S. Congress and teaches workshops on bioethics for the Association of Chief Justices of the US Courts of Appeals. He has served on the FDA Panel on Molecular and Genetic Devices, charged with evaluating all genetic tests and devices. He was the American external evaluator of all genetics and policy programs for the United Kingdom's Economic and Social Research Council in 2007. In 2006 Dr. McGee organized "Bioethics and Politics," the first national conference to bring together conservative and liberal thinkers in biomedical ethics, hailed as "the most important bioethics conference in 25 years" by the then ASBH President. He has been elected to the boards of directors of several foundations and organizations including Planned Parenthood and Chair of the ethics committee of the nation's largest stem cell company. He was hailed by the New York Times and by Harvard University Project Zero for his creating an undergraduate class in which students must submit fully articulate proposed legislation in bioethics to their home state government in order to receive an "A."
Dr. McGee is the acknowledge pioneer and leader in electronic outreach in bioethics. For example, in a joint effort led by Dr. McGee with Apple Computer and Google, he and his colleague Dr. Summer Johnson developed the most successful online graduate program in bioethics using technologies such as Apple's iTunes University and bioethics.net, the first bioethics website (which he founded in 1994). Glenn has three sons, Ethan, Austin and Aidan, and lives in Kansas City, Missouri.
McGee does an excellent job of sorting through the hype about genes and genetic engineering putting to bed some issues that seem to be frightening large amounts of people (like genetically modified food) and raising issues that do not appear to be on anyone's radar screen (patents issued to large, money-making corporations for YOUR genes). He explains in terms understandable by almost everyone why it matters that we look harder at what is being done and by whom. Too many articles on this topic today seem to concentrate on genetic manipulation that will pass on to future generations of plants or animals and thus be a major factor in evolution. But this book focuses on what can or can't be done with genes in the current generation, a much more clear and present danger (or benefit).
The only fault I could find with the book is that the subtitle might lead a person to believe he had more control over where, when and by whom genetic engineering will impact his life. Unless more of us get together to help craft policies and laws about the use of genetics, the answers will all come from those who stand to profit moneywise from your genes.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
This review is from: Beyond Genetics: The User's Guide to DNA (Paperback)
McGee's predictions, while some may seem infeasible, are thought provoking and founded on ample research in today's biotechnology market.
As a student taking AP Biology, I found this book to be wholly readable; it touched on topics I've had to study, but no where did it become tedious or perplexing.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
McGee's discourse is somewhat dry, uneven, vague (particularly the first three chapters which generally stuck me as being too abstract and grandiose), the editing should have been better, and for these reasons the text is often discouraging. But if you can stay with McGee, you will eventually find that the issues being examined are important and complex. McGee addresses the broad misunderstandings that many people fasten to the now frequent reports of the identification of "genes for" this or that condition or disease or shenanigans (I write this amid titillating headlines that "science" has identified a "gene for" sexual infidelity--so there you have it, I'm sure!). He highlights the difficulties and injustices that have arisen, and continue to develop, as regards "genetic discrimination". The abuse of genomic information (and likely other incomplete science, although McGee's focus is strictly genomics) by industry, employers, and particularly the for-profit private health insurance system enshrined by the American political Right, is now intractable, for the simple reason that the entire discipline of bioinformatics is enormously incomplete, at best. On points, current understandings of data (whether extant or absent) will certainly prove to be wrong (or perhaps too complex to foreseeably become scientifically "right"), but in many cases this incomplete and/or wrong science is wielded by for-profit "health care" insurers to isolate and [virtually eugenically] punish innocent but exploitable individuals, in hopes of producing a more attractive spreadsheet for investors. A putative "health care system" (that is, the American for-profit system) that is inherently fastened to the abuse and the selective misuse of science, and to place the necessity for profitability above mere scientific caution (apparently `science' must be malleable, or even dispensable, if, when, and where science might conflict with financial strategies!), is a health care system seriously in need of dispassionate scrutiny, repair, and/or replacement.
The issues surrounding `genetic discrimination', the `scientific' aspects of which are often dubious, is not McGee's only topic here, but in that it highlights our culture's misunderstanding of the fundamental nature of what science is and what science actually does (including what its appropriate uses, inherent uncertainties, and constraints are), and in that it highlights the inherent problems of doing healthcare for maximally large black or green numbers, it's an important topic.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
