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In a short time we will have transliterated the human genome, played out
many parts of it in cells, and gotten some difficult passages translated
for us in transgenic animals. Then we will begin hunting for the passages
we want most to know about, the ones responsible for our humanity and, if
not our souls, then our ability to imagine souls. What we have found so
far suggests that it will be impossible to know ourselves this way, but
we could easily do great damage to future fellow citizens by trying. As
a friend once said to make me reconsider a particularly seductive experiment,
if it isn't worth doing, it isn't worth doing well.
ROBERT POLLACK
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