Medicine may change our genes

doi:10.1136/bmj.39580.445856.59

BMJ 2008;336:1101 (17 May), doi:10.1136/bmj.39580.445856.59

Observations

Only Connect

Medicine may change our genes

Nicholas A Christakis, professor of medical sociology, Harvard Medical School, and attending physician (with an emphasis on palliative medicine), Mt Auburn Hospital, Cambridge, Massachusetts

christak@hcp.med.harvard.edu

The prospect of medical technology modifying genetic evolutionis as amazing as it is troubling

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

A lot of hot air is around at the moment—and quite a bitof overselling—about advances in genetics, personalisedgenomics, and gene therapy. Only a small part of the variancein human illness is explained by genetics; most is explainedby lifestyle, behaviour, and social factors such as poverty.Yet large sums are spent in a quixotic pursuit of the geneticbasis for everything.

The hope—some say fear—is that we will be able touse advances in medical technology to reshape the genome ofindividual patients, curing ailments by changing somatic genes.Some even hope that we will be able to modify our species forthe better by introducing changes into our germline.

Ethicists hotly debate this topic, arguing about the case foror against "perfection." Do we have the right to develop technologiesthat would allow us to change the human genome? Some would saythis is a duty. . . . [Full text of this article]

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