Customer Reviews

Genethics: The Clash between the New Genetics and Human Values

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When I first read this book, I thought it was a reasonableoverview of the ethical problems facing us in the world of biotechnology. However, on second thought (always a good idea to think twice!), the book represents EXACTLY what we expect to hear with regard to the topic. Little to no original material is presented, and there is no effort made to evaluate or even examine alternative points of view in the realm of ethics. Unsurprisingly, the tired and overused metaphor of the slippery slope - long the faithful friend of ethical doomsayers everywhere - rears its ugly head again here. The authors also take the attitude that they are explaining "common knowledge" just for the sake of getting it on paper, and seem immune to the idea that someone might do something so horribly vile as to - gasp! - support cloning.

The conclusions are painfully predictable: genetically modified foods might be dangerous to wild stocks, there is a moral gulf between somatic and germ-line gene therapy, cloning of humans is utterly immoral. Fewer knee-jerk emotional reactions and more critical thought on these topics - especially cloning - would be deeply appreciated by everyone. Many people are sick of hearing only one side of the issue presented as if the case is already closed. And the "Genethic Principle" paragraphs beginning each section make the book sound like a textbook, reinforcing the reader's conception that he is being instructed in something everyone already knows.

IMHO, the "dangers" of these biotechnologies are significant and should be appreciated, but have been vastly inflated by sensationalist media, public paranoia, and a few ill-advised experiments. Cloning especially is the victim of sensationalization (if indeed that is a word), and the maxim "Never clone humans!" is widely taken as basically gospel. In fact, there is little scientific evidence that cloning would present much of the famed danger, and it certainly isn't the threat to individuality people like to claim it is (what about environmental differences? what about identical twins?) And no, cloning couldn't be used to make a slavishly obedient army of mini-Hitlers bent on world domination, either. Try Gregory Pence's "Who's Afraid of Human Cloning?" or any Richard Dawkins article on the subject....