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Genetic manipulation

"Can we encode the HIV virus into the human genome, rendering it harmless, and should we?"

I know it's "too geeky" for some, but in the Star Trek Deep Space 9 series they had a character, Dr. Bashir, who had been born with abnormally low intelligence and his parents had genetic manipulation done illegally to increase his intelligence to around genius level. Of course, viewers would think, "So, what's wrong with genetic manipulation?" Then they had an episode where they showed the results of others who had had genetic manipulation done, resulting in severe disabilities.

The truth is that trying to rewrite ANY portion of the human genetic code is like having some kid off the street rewrite parts of the nuclear launch software. We just don't know anywhere near enough to do it safely.

In this regard, how about talking about the emerging field of epigenetics? A gross oversimplification of the term is that scientists are discovering that Lamarck was right. Certain acquired changes CAN be inherited.

Posted by: Rick_R   Posted on: 11/29/07 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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