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Advocacy in Genetics: A Teaching Guide and Workbook
A Look into the Future through the Past
Human life and death used to be mysterious and uncontrollable events. Humans could not protect themselves from disease and dying. We believed that we were creatures with a destiny and that our destiny was inescapable.
Then scientists began to develop vaccines and antibiotics, and we could make ourselves better when we were sick. We could, with the help of science, avoid the plague of diseases that had once killed us. We could have an impact on our "destinies." And that was good.
Further technological developments, such as the x-ray and ultrasound, helped us to diagnose injuries and illnesses. Technology let us breathe when our respiratory systems failed. We had better tools to fight disease and death. And this was good.
Science and medicine continued to discover and refine our diagnostic methods and treatments. We were able to cure more and more once-devastating illnesses and injuries. And that was good.
And then scientists set their sights on eliminating disease altogether. Why wait until a patient has leukemia to treat it; why not prevent it altogether? Why not use our medicine and technology before a disease started, instead of waiting until a person was already sick? And this was good.
The science of genetics now allows us to use carrier and prenatal testing to predetermine a child’s predisposition for various diseases. And this is good.
Or is it? If we can control these elements in our lives, why not use this technology to control other things? And who would have access to use the technology? How do we, as a society, view the scope of disease and health; what would a world be like with less variability? Perhaps we could use this technology to ensure high IQs for all children, eliminating the need for special education services. The combination of genetic variables from which to pick and choose is infinite. Within the next few generations, the technology may exist to control some aspects of our own future – as well as that of our descendants. But what cost will we pay as a society and a species?
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