| Researchers have announced that the human genome sequence is now almost completely deciphered. The decoding of three billion letters of the genetic code in human DNA was completed two years ahead of schedule thanks to advances in computer technology, and gives scientists “the chance to explore everything that is genetically (pre-)determined about our lives,” according to a BBC report.
Researchers are already working on a multitude of biomedical projects to find the genetic roots of diseases like diabetes, leukemia and eczema. “Now they have a highly polished end product which will assist them even more,” said Dr. Jane Rogers at Britain’s Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute. “It’s a bit like moving on from a first-attempt demo music tape to a classic CD.” But a growing chorus of scientists have raised concerns about how the information will ultimately be used. British Nobel Prize-winning scientist Sir Paul Nurse last March warned fellow scientists that advances in genetic research herald “genetic discrimination” within 20 years, as health providers, insurance companies, employers and government agencies begin to treat people differently based on their genetic fate. Individual genome sequences, which reveal each individual’s susceptibility to particular diseases, could be recorded on every citizen’s health or identity cards, Nurse told a gathering of the Royal Society, an academy of scientists. In turn, the information would allow health care providers, insurance companies, employers and every branch of government to treat people differently. At the very least, it could mean higher fees and insurance premiums for people with genetic defects, reports said. Nurse won the 2001 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine jointly with Leland H. Hartwell, R. and Timothy Hunt for their discoveries of “key regulators of the cell cycle.” With files from LifeSite News |
