Word: ideas
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Vietnam changed him," says Fraser. "It impressed on him the idea that time is precious, that you have to make every single minute of every single day count...
...stages of development are about a dozen of the most serious genetic diseases. Gene therapy in embryos is at least a few years away. And the gene or combination of genes responsible for most of our physical and mental attributes hasn't even been identified yet, making moot the idea of engineering genes in or out of a fetus. Besides, say clinicians, even if the techniques for making designer babies are perfected within the next decade, they should be applied in the service of disease prevention, not improving on nature...
...Bishop of Edinburgh tried. After overseeing a British Medical Association study on bioethics, he embraced genetic tinkering for "medical reasons," while denouncing the "Frankenstein idea" of making "designer babies" with good looks and a high IQ. But what is the difference? Therapists consider learning disabilities to be medical problems, and if we find a way to diagnose and remedy them before birth, we'll be raising scores on IQ tests. Should we tell parents they can't do that, that the state has decided they must have a child with dyslexia? Minor memory flaws? Below-average verbal skills? At some...
This unequal access won't bring a rigid caste system a la Brave New World. The interplay between genes and environment is too complex to permit the easy fine-tuning of mind and spirit. Besides, in vitro fertilization is nobody's idea of a good time; even many affluent parents will forgo painful invasive procedures unless horrible hereditary defects are at stake. But the technology will become more powerful and user friendly. Sooner or later, as the most glaring genetic liabilities drift toward the bottom of the socioeconomic scale, we will see a biological stratification vivid enough to mock American...
...even among the rarefied biotech elite, there are mavericks who think they have a better idea. They want to move one step closer to the gene by targeting the RNA molecules that transfer information from genes to proteins. And they have the perfect molecular tool with which to do it. By synthesizing strands of DNA that are the mirror image of the RNA they wish to block, researchers can produce a drug that is more specific than anything else on the market. Because it interrupts the "sense" that the cell is trying to make of the RNA molecule...