CONNECTICUT LIBRARIES
September 2003, Vol. 45, No. 8
Dr. David Banner hoped to shape the future by splicing genes. Relentlessly driven, he replaced his frail human chromosomes with the best genetic material that other species have to offer. The genes of the jellyfish, sea cucumber, starfish, and other creatures, each selected for its unique abilities, were spliced into his cells to make him something greater than human. His research was terminated before he could complete his goal, but not before he had passed his altered genetic heritage on to his son Bruce. The adult Bruce Banner, also a researcher, sought to cure disease through "nano-meds," medications created through nanotechnology. When the younger Banner accidentally saturated himself with massive doses of experimental nano-meds, he found that he was something beyond mortal.
If that sounds familiar, you probably saw the summer action film, HULK. The impressive opening sequences show a fervent scientist doing exactly the kind of genetic engineering that Bill McKibben warns us about in Enough. The film gets only two stars, but I recommend McKibben's book. He educates readers about technologies that threaten our humanity. He calls upon us to say, "Enough!" to scientists who have lost respect for the things that make us human, who seek to create a "post-human" ideal.
Covering some of the ground that Bill Joy discussed in his Wired article of April 2000 (see Connecticut Libraries, September 2000), McKibben identifies genetics, nanotechnology, and robotics as triple-threats to the future of humanity. Each of the "GNR" technologies promises the conquest of human disease, injury, and frailty. Each offers self-replication and therein lies McKibben's concern. He fears that, once we have reached a critical level of acceptance of these technologies, we will no longer be able to choose who we are and what we become.
Of the three technologies, genetics troubles McKibben the most because it has reached maturity. However, he recognizes in the champions of robotics and nanotechnology the same arguments made by geneticists. These scientists want to make life better for the weak, the ill, and the disabled. McKibben sees, in their lofty mission statements, the hidden agenda of their messianic colleagues. Those true believers anticipate the displacement of humanity with something better as a desirable and inexorable evolutionary step.
McKibben carefully differentiates between somatic and germline genetic engineering. He declares somatic gene therapy safe and directly related to traditional medicine. Researchers in somatic therapy treat patients by modifying genes. Diseases like cystic fibrosis are caused by malfunctioning genes producing proteins that cause symptoms like lungs filled with mucus. The goal is to modify genes so they will not generate harmful proteins. Somatic gene therapy does not change the genetic makeup of every cell in the body. Children of patients who have undergone such treatment do not inherit the modified genetic code.
Germline genetic engineering is unacceptable to McKibben. Germline researchers work with fertilized embryos, adding, deleting, or modifying the genes, possibly even inserting artificial chromosomes. Cells modified to their specifications can then be used to replace the nucleus of an egg cell. Such an embryo would grow into a genetically engineered child. Offspring of an engineered child would inherit the altered genetic makeup and pass it on to his or her own children. McKibben informs us that scientists have been performing germline research on animals since 1978.
Germline genetics eventually makes possible "designer children," offspring whose personalities, physical characteristics, and mental capabilities are pre-selected by their parents! This is the post-human ideal that McKibben dreads: designer children lacking human choice and human feeling, future generations programmed by us to be what we want, instead of what they choose to be through self-discovery and free will.
McKibben uses athletic challenges to make his point. His long-distance running has tested his limits. It has brought him pain, joy, and a sense of accomplishment, helping him to better understand himself and others. He believes that a person who is programmed before birth to be a swift runner will not experience challenge. He doubts that person will be human. Expanding his argument to other areas of human endeavor, McKibben asks, what pride can one take in one's intellectual accomplishments, when these were programmed into one's genes?
Can a parent resist designing a perfect child while everyone else is ordering up super-kids? McKibben knows that the answer is no, not in a world where Asian couples often use amniocentesis to identify female fetuses for abortion and wealthy Americans bribe officials to have their offspring enrolled in prestigious nursery schools! Instead of leaving germline decisions to parents placed in impossible situations, he advocates making a societal choice, a political decision, to end germline research. If we do not make that choice soon, he contends, then our generation will be the last generation with the freedom to choose.
In my next column, I'll look at what a novelist can make of a future based on McKibben's fears.
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