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Subversive Reflections on the Human Genome Project

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2022

Alex Rosenberg
Alex Rosenberg*
Affiliation:
University of California, Riverside
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Extract

In the Museum of Science and Technology in San Jose, California, there is a display dedicated to advances in biotechnology. Most prominent in the display is a double helix of telephone books stacked in two staggered spirals from the floor to the ceiling twenty five feet above. The books are said to present the current state of our knowledge or the eurcaryotic genome: the primary sequences of DNA polynucleotides for the gene products which have been discovered so far in the twenty years since cloning and sequencing the genome became possible.

In order to grasp what is problematical about the human genome project (HGP), I want you to hold on to this image of a stack of phone books, or rather two stacks, helictical in shape. Imagine that each of the phone books about the size of the Manhattan white pages, and that the two stacks of phone books reach up a mile and a half into the sky.

Type
Part X. Policy Issues in Human Genetics
Information
PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association , Volume 1994 , Issue 2: Volume Two: Symposia and Invited Papers 1994 , 1994 , pp. 329 - 335
Copyright
Copyright © 1995 by the Philosophy of Science Association

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References

Collins, F, and Galas, D. (1993), “A new five year plan for the US human genome project”, Science, 262: 43–46.10.1126/science.8211127CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roberts, L. (1993), “Taking Stock of the Genome Project”, Science, 262: 20–22.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rosenberg, A. (1996), “Research Tactics and Science Politics: How we Got the Human Genome Project”, Social Philosophy and Policy, forthcoming.Google Scholar
Watson, J. (1993), “Looking Forward”, Gene, 135: 309–315.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed