As a programmer with a biochem degree, this kind of paranoia makes me cringe. Common sense and any geneticist will tell you that there is no gene for "smart" or "perfect" or "nice", that genetics has exceedingly little impact on intangibles like personality or intelligence. It's nature versus nurture and I would have though/.ers would know that both have an impact. Genetics could screen out obvious genetic disorders like sickle cell anemia or dwarvish, but they won't have any effect on how fast you can run or how successful you will be in life. Movies like Gattaca or books like Brave New World are fabulous incitements to the public to create rules and prohibitions against what the scientific community about wat they can and cannot do, but they bear very little resemblance to reality. I seriously doubt that genetic bigotry would occur (past the point that it already does). How long after the cloning of Dolly did it take for the government to pass a law banning human cloning (like there's any scientific value in cloning a human)? My point is that worrying about being discriminated against because, for example, you have a gene associated with alcoholism, is right up there with worrying about the coming tide killer bees.
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As a programmer with a biochem degree, this kind of paranoia makes me cringe. Common sense and any geneticist will tell you that there is no gene for "smart" or "perfect" or "nice", that genetics has exceedingly little impact on intangibles like personality or intelligence. It's nature versus nurture and I would have though /.ers would know that both have an impact. Genetics could screen out obvious genetic disorders like sickle cell anemia or dwarvish, but they won't have any effect on how fast you can run or how successful you will be in life. Movies like Gattaca or books like Brave New World are fabulous incitements to the public to create rules and prohibitions against what the scientific community about wat they can and cannot do, but they bear very little resemblance to reality. I seriously doubt that genetic bigotry would occur (past the point that it already does). How long after the cloning of Dolly did it take for the government to pass a law banning human cloning (like there's any scientific value in cloning a human)? My point is that worrying about being discriminated against because, for example, you have a gene associated with alcoholism, is right up there with worrying about the coming tide killer bees.