This Week

Does not wisdom call, and does not understanding raise her voice?  
On the heights, beside the way, at the crossroads she takes her stand;  
beside the gates in front of the town, at the entrance of the 
portals she cries out:  "To you, O people, I call, 
and my cry is to all that live. The LORD created me at the beginning 
of his work, the first of his acts of long ago.  Ages ago I was set up, 
at the first, before the beginning of the earth.  When there were 
no depths I was brought forth, when there were no springs abounding 
with water.  Before the mountains had been shaped, before the hills, 
I was brought forth-- when he had not yet made earth and fields, 
or the world's first bits of soil.  When he established the heavens, 
I was there, when he drew a circle on the face of the deep,  
when he made firm the skies above, when he established the fountains 
of the deep,  when he assigned to the sea its limit, so that the waters 
might not transgress his command, when he marked out the foundations 
of the earth, then I was beside him, like a master worker; and I was 
daily his delight, rejoicing before him always,  rejoicing in his 
inhabited world and delighting in the human race. 
--- Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31

In the long run,  human genetic knowledge will very likely lead 
to therapies and cures for many diseases.  New drugs will be designed 
to overcome the specific deleterious effects of many genetic malfunctions.  
Gene therapy will introduce normal DNA into the body to assume 
the functions of abnormal strands of the molecule.  Powerful technologies 
already permit the selection of healthy embryos in vitro for implantation 
in women whose offspring are at risk for various genetic diseases, 
while new techniques have enabled the insertion of healthy genes into 
sperm that might otherwise be genetically impaired. 

But in the short run, for most diseases, human genetics is yielding 
prediction without promise, providing prognoses that can be dire 
but not the power to prevent the anticipated pain, suffering, and, 
perhaps, death.  It is also raising anxieties.  Some fear that the 
techniques of gene therapy, embryo selection, and the engineering of 
sperm could all become tools of a kind of human genetic manipulation 
that would be offensive to humane and egalitarian values.
---- Daniel J. Kevles, In the Name of Eugenics

Already, 30 genetically modified children have been born, 
products of an infertility treatment that adds cytoplasm 
from a donor's eggs to the mother's egg. In the process, 
it also transfers the donor's mitochondira. The effect 
of this is not konwn, but it is known that the mitochondrial
 genetic materials are passed on to future generations. 
---- NY Times, 5.5.01

The third and fourth objectives of the genetic counseling 
process underlie the primary differences between the genetic 
model and the traditional biomedical approach.  
These tasks involve the discussion of reproductive options 
and the facilitation of decision-making.  Implicit in the 
fourth part of the definition is the notion of respect for 
the family's autonomy and their perceptions of risk and of 
the disorder itself.  This approach has been called nondirectiveness: 
the counselor leaves all decisions about future reproduction 
up to the family.... This is an important issue because 
nondirectiveness sometimes conflicts with the broader 
view of preventive medicine, which might suggest that 
the principal goal of the genetic counseling should be 
the reduction of the incidence of genetic disease.  
However, the main goal of genetic counseling is to help 
families understand and cope with genetic disease.  
----Lynn Jorde et al, Medical Genetics

	
I myself do nothing. The Holy Spirit accomplishes all through me.	
----William Blake