Summary
Title: Genetic Destinies
Author: Peter Little
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198607849
Pro:
• Helps make complex scientific information easily accessible
• Concentrates on some of people’s most important hopes and fears
Con:
• None
Description:
• Analysis of the role of genes in making us who we are and how genes functions
• Explores the hopes and fears people have regarding genetic engineering
• Explains which dreams may be realized and which fears are unrealistic
Book Review
To accurately assess some of the possible benefits and dangers of genetic manipulation, we need to have accurate information about what is and is not possible, what is and is not likely in terms of future technology and science. Such understanding is, unfortunately, sorely lacking in the general population, as well as in many of the media pundits who try to offer opinions on the matter. Given how important genetics is for the future, people need to educate themselves so that they can make informed political, ethical, and personal decisions.
One good source for such education is Peter Little’s book Genetic Destinies. A molecular geneticist for over than 25 years, Little demonstrates a remarkable ability to make such a complex and difficult subject understandable for the average person with clear, jargon-free prose. This book is aimed at general audiences, not other scientists, and is designed to help people understand not just the issues involved, but also the basic science behind the scenes. This, in turn, helps make it clear what is possible or not, and thus what we can realistically hope for and what we should be concerned about.
Little explains what genes are and how they function; what genes’ roles are in things like the creation of a human being, race, disease, the development of the mind, personalities, and more; genes and intelligence; and of course what is involved in genetic engineering. There is a lot of very basic information here, but it’s information which many people don’t have and/or have misunderstandings about.
The title of Little’s book, “Genetic Destinies,” is a reference to what he believes drives most of the fear of genetic engineering: people believe that so much of what we are is so unalterably tied up with our genes that the more we know about our genes, the more we will know about our futures — and therefore the less control we have over our lives. Either our genes will “destine” us to dying from specific diseases or those with the most power and money will be able to exercise even greater control over society through the genes of its members.
The entire book is framed with two future stories about two girls, Jeanne Dream and Jean Battler, whose lives illustrate the genetic dreams and genetic nightmares which many today may subscribe to. These stories illustrate how genetic engineering might either improve or harm our lives, but how much in these stories is realistic?
Genetic Destinies, by Peter Little
At the end of his book, Little revisits the stories he relates at the beginning in order to review all the information discussed thus far and explain what’s possible, what’s impossible, what’s realistic, what’s possible but unrealistic, and what’s already occurring.
What he reveals is that neither the dream nor the nightmare is entirely accurate. There are aspects of the dream which are worth hoping for and which scientists are working hard to make happen — for example treating people with drugs specifically tailored to how their genes cause the body to react. Some aspects of the nightmare are also realistic if not reality — like being fired for non-disclosure of genetic flaws — but other aspects are not, like chemical weapons designed to target only certain ethnicities. Whether you are going to have hopes or fears about the future, you at least need to be educated about what can realistically be expected from the future, and this book will help.
