The Human Genome Research - awesome potential

        The federal government  simply MUST have the upper hand in its

    vastly important project  to " find and decode all 60,000 or more

    genes in the human body . The  $3-billion project is the moral

    equivalent of the famous Manhattan Project that developed the first

    atomic bomb : " The Italian navigator has entered the New World ! "

    That was a cryptic message to announce physicist Enrico Fermi 's

    successful - and perhaps highly dangerous nuclear fission experiment.

        When the  Human Genome project is completed  we all will enter an

    exciting and highly dangerous New World.

        I remember in junior high school first learning about this mysterious

    DNA -the raw material of genes. Its elegant structure quite simply

    explained its reproductive function . I recall pictures of ecstatic

    scientist gazing reverently at models of the " double helix " The

    names Watson and Crick were etched in my memory .  It was as if these

    two young men had finally discovered the Holy Grail of bio-chemistry .

          The fact that some 60,000 genes define a HUMAN BEING tells us

    a great deal about old disputes. Racist ideas are immediately reduced

    to the intellectual rubbish   which sane people always rejected.

         But what about  class differences ? What about the difference

    between the smart and the dumb, brave and the cowardly, the beautiful

    and the ugly ? More significantly what about the  genetic difference

    between the good and the evil ?

          What will we DO with the new knowledge ?  Only a democratic

    society - a VERY democratic society - can make  wise decisions.

         That is why I prefer the relatively democratic and idealistic

    federal government to have the advantage in Human Genome research.

         A private corporation  like Perkin-Elmer can be trusted -in

    the long run- only to do the PROFITABLE thing .