Now the whole world knows what I've known for over a year: a significant portion of the DNA used to map the human genome belongs to Dr. Craig Venter, the scientist who led Celera Genomics in a competition with the National Institutes of Health to draw a first, rough draft of the genes
By Arthur Kaplan New York Times
Now the whole world knows what I've known for over a year: a significant portion of the DNA used to map the human genome belongs to Dr. Craig Venter, the scientist who led Celera Genomics in a competition with the National Institutes of Health to draw a first, rough draft of the genes . When the scientists of Celera Genomics announced two years ago that they had deciphered the human genome, they claimed that the source of the genetic data was from anonymous donors and that the data constituted a universal human map. Now, as mentioned, it turned out differently.
Four years ago, when the possibility of mapping the human genome was first discussed, Dr. Venter asked for my advice regarding the ethical aspect of the task.
I said that a crucial element in this issue is the question of the affiliation of the genes that will be selected for mapping. From a scientific point of view, it doesn't matter whose genes; The level of detail of the first map is relatively coarse anyway, and the tiny genetic differences that exist between humans are unimportant. But as I have often discovered, and as is evident from the ongoing struggle surrounding the cloning of human stem cells for medical research purposes, much more than pure science is at stake when it comes to genetics.
My argument was that the best way to choose DNA donors for the project would be to gather a cross-section of people who represented the main ethnic and racial groups and draw the map using the contribution of each of them.
I didn't say this just out of considerations of political correctness. When starting a project like this with a large selection of representatives of the human race, an important lesson can be drawn from it: genetically, there is much that humans have in common than what differentiates them. This is why the genome map we now have represents all humans. Hiding the identity of the DNA donors would have reduced the likelihood of mistakenly engaging in genetic reductionism - that is, trying to establish a connection between certain traits and forms of behavior and the DNA of the donors.
Now, when Venter is exposed not only as a prominent contributor to the human genome mapping project, but also as someone who provided its main components - these lessons are in jeopardy. Wise men of all kinds are beginning to wonder if Venter's love of sailing or his fondness for intellectual brawls will show up on the map. The answer is: no. Genes - certainly at the level of structure and organization revealed in the rough initial genome map - are not enough by themselves to make a person a brilliant scientist, or anything else. Our genes are able to produce in each of us a wide range of behavior, personality and character.
Our genes are not the essence that defines us; They have no sacred status. They constitute a wide set of instructions, which can produce a large variety of results - depending on the environment in which they operate. Human nature is not literally written in the genome. For this reason, the proposals to ban the transcription of genes through cloning or genetic engineering - proposals based on the fear of the chaos that will be caused, as it were, by changing the genes - are out of place. Any genome - Venter's, or anyone else's - can produce a series of results.
I wish my friend Craig Venter would not reveal the fact that his DNA is what makes up the map of the human genome. But now that he has done so, it is important to know that the map he helped put together cannot decipher the dreams and fulfill the hopes that led him to sketch it. Those who want to understand what motivates Craig Venter or other people can indeed use information about their genetic makeup. But without additional information about their parents, their spouses, their friends, the schools they attended, their heroes and spiritual guides - they will not reach their desired destination.
The author, director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, was a member of the Scientific Advisory Board at Celera Genomics in 2001-1998
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