The Impact of the Gene
From Mendel's Peas to Designer Babies
By Colin Tudge
Hill and Wang
375 pgs. $US27, C$43

The growth of science

By Steven Martinovich
web posted September 10, 2001

Perhaps illustrating the quickening pace of science, it was only in
February 1997 that researchers at the Roslin Institute in Scotland
announced the birth of Dolly, a sheep that was the first mammal
cloned from an adult. Only five years later in August 2001,
Italian professor Severino Antinori and U.S. researcher Panos
Zavos announced they would clone a human being by
transferring DNA from the nuclei of living cells into human eggs
in November to create a human embryo, which would be
implanted into a woman's uterus.

If opponents of human cloning can blame anyone for these
developments, it may be ninetieth century monk Gregor Mendel,
the world's first geneticist. With an elegant experiment involving
peas, Mendel was the first person to establish the basic laws of
heredity, laws which Colin Tudge, author of The Impact of the
Gene: From Mendel's Peas to Designer Babies, states are the
basic principles from which modern genetics is drawn from.

As Tudge writes the story, Mendel's experiments were
breathtaking in their simplicity but were ignored by
contemporaries like Charles Darwin, only to be rediscovered
decades after his death. By combining the work of the two men,
it was learned that evolution works at the level of the gene and
not the individual, as many lay people still believe, and allowed
scientists in the early Twentieth Century to create the science and
language of modern biology. From there, Tudge embarks on a
lively journey to illustrate that, as he states, all genetics are
footnotes to Mendel.

Along the way he defends evolutionary psychology and explains
the difficulty in making a "better" human being (wheat breeders
go through millions of offspring to come up with good
combinations). While it is technically possible to create a
designer baby, nothing is impossible after all, it won't likely be
very feasible considering the monumental challenge of
understanding the millions, perhaps even billions, of genetic
factors that influence something like intelligence. Ultimately, says
Tudge, it is "foolish" for us to tinker with ourselves given it took
five million years for the modern human being to evolve. If our
knowledge isn't absolute, and we can never be sure it is,
interfering with processes we may not understand can bring
repercussions we may rue.

That will probably be good news for those opposed to
genetically engineering human beings. Cloning a human being is a
relatively simple procedure. Simply put, it is merely the copy of
genetic material, something that happens automatically in nature.
Despite recent reports that cloning human beings may be easier -
relatively speaking - then cloning sheep, creating, or at least
modifying, at the genetic level is a remarkably complex task that
may not be possible until the advent of quantum computing.

For such a enjoyable effort, his epilogue is a severe and
completely unexpected disappointment. Focusing on the ethical
challenges that biotechnology raises, Tudge argues quite
correctly that as our power grows, so does our responsibility,
and that our understanding of what we can do and what can be
done will never be complete. From there, however, Tudge veers
off into odd territory, arguing that we should determine moral
absolutes with the help of "prophets" who would frame the moral
premises we will debate. These prophets, who may or may not
be people of religion, would essentially use a religious framework
because of its emotional appeal, something Tudge seems to
argue is more powerful to the average person then rational
argument.

Moreover, Tudge argues that our misgivings about biotechnology
are valuable because they are intuitive: a fear that going too far
will provoke the penalties of hubris. Mere human happiness, says
Tudge, is not the primary criterion to be used in decision-making.
Tudge uses those arguments to press for controls of the free
market (a "limited and blunt" instrument) to make sure that the
benefits, if any, go to more than those who can pay.

Of course, if human happiness isn't the primary criterion -
presumably things like ridding the world of genetic disorders and
allowing the childless to extend their lineages are moral actions -
and the free market is not the most efficient way to provide that
benefit (much more valuable commodities - such as food - seem
to be spread around quite well), then pursuing genetic technology
is at best a mixed blessing. For most of Impact of the Gene,
Tudge seems to argue that it will bless us, only at the end to
seemingly step back. It diminishes an otherwise fine effort.

Steven Martinovich is a freelance writer in Sudbury, Ontario.

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