Genetic politics : the limits of biological control /

Genetics is too important to be left to the geneticists,"" says Mark Lapp‚, writing from his experience as Director of the Genetics Research Group at the Institute of Society, Ethics and the Life Sciences at Hastings, N.Y. At the same time, ""Genes are not everything."" The dual notions interweave throughout this thoughtful if gloomy look at the past realities and future potentials of genetic information. Lapp‚ is concerned that a new Social Darwinism is around the corner with social interventions leading to invidious labeling, stigmatizing, and discrimination in education, jobs, insurance, etc. He can rightly point to past disasters, such as mandatory screening for sickle-cell trait in black populations, where there was widespread confusion between carriers (a virtually harmless state) and those with the disease. He is right, too, in citing the profound psychological upheaval genetic information can wreak in families--and right in attributing simplistic thinking and genetic determinism to biologists and psychologists who posit genes for aggression, criminality, altruism, or intelligence. But the book lacks balance. Infant screening programs may not be foolproof, but if early intervention can prevent lifelong mental retardation in a child with a metabolic disorder, then surely the benefit outweighs the cost. Lapp‚ also fails to note that genetic research goes beyond the search for genetic flaws to seek amelioration--such as how to get vital enzymes into the brain of a patient with Tay-Sachs disease. Here, research may yield the kind of information Lapp‚ is concerned about: How mutable are the genes? How do environmental and genetic factors interact, that is, in the development of the nervous system to yield wide individual differences even in patients with a recognized genetic disease? One cannot quarrel with the ethical goals Lapp‚ proposes--such as voluntarism and benefit to the individual in genetic testing. It's the Cassandra stance that's questionable. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.