-
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
|