In “Playing God?” by John Evans, technology is dashing at an erratic speed, and nowhere more so than in the field of genetic engineering where the possibility of changing the genes of one’s children isn’t just myth; but quickly becoming a reality. John H. Evans is professor of sociology at the University of California, San Diego. He has been a visiting member of the School of Social Sciences at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ, a post-doctoral fellow at the Robert Wood Johnson Scholars in Health Policy Research Program at Yale University and has held a Visiting Professorial Fellowship at the University of Edinburgh. Evans primary area of expertise is the sociology of religion. In this book, Evans explores the social forces
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That produced the infamous known sheep, Dolly. Of course, the public was immediately concerned and asked questions. Could this technique be used to clone humans? Cloning may appear new but it is one of the techniques in a class of techniques developed over the past four decades. Evans calls these techniques Human Genetic Engineering (HGE), which defined by Evans is the intentional transformation of genes in the body (somatic modification) or descendants of a person (germline modification) through chemical manipulation. According to Evans, cloning was just a leap in our HGE abilities. Cloning allows for people to select an entire genome for their descendants. We would no longer need to find the genes to regulate intelligence. We could just clone Einstein. In 1990, seven years before Dolly; the first successful act of somatic HE took place. A four-year-old girl with a rare genetic condition called ADA deficiency had a gene added to some of the cells in her body to correct a problem with a malfunctioning gene. In reference to Evans, while at least one participant in a clinical trial has died from somatic HGE; there is more proof that somatic engineering has benefited patients. This proof suggesting that this technique will continue to be
That produced the infamous known sheep, Dolly. Of course, the public was immediately concerned and asked questions. Could this technique be used to clone humans? Cloning may appear new but it is one of the techniques in a class of techniques developed over the past four decades. Evans calls these techniques Human Genetic Engineering (HGE), which defined by Evans is the intentional transformation of genes in the body (somatic modification) or descendants of a person (germline modification) through chemical manipulation. According to Evans, cloning was just a leap in our HGE abilities. Cloning allows for people to select an entire genome for their descendants. We would no longer need to find the genes to regulate intelligence. We could just clone Einstein. In 1990, seven years before Dolly; the first successful act of somatic HE took place. A four-year-old girl with a rare genetic condition called ADA deficiency had a gene added to some of the cells in her body to correct a problem with a malfunctioning gene. In reference to Evans, while at least one participant in a clinical trial has died from somatic HGE; there is more proof that somatic engineering has benefited patients. This proof suggesting that this technique will continue to be