![]() ![]() The most intimate information about individuals, their genetic makeup, will be reduced to digital information that can be copied, shared, and moved over networks. And this will happen, if not in the United States then in other countries with lax ethical standards or different cultural attitudes toward such technological interventions.įinally, the genetic age is built on the digital age. It will require major investments in public education and a vastly expanded counseling infrastructure in the medical and public health areas.Īs a society, we also will be confronted with the ethical issues that often occur when diagnostic tools are turned into discriminatory instruments for screening people or when therapeutic techniques are applied to the enhancement of individual capabilities or traits. This information will present individuals with difficult choices in terms of lifestyle changes, medical options, and decisions about conceiving offspring. Genetics will provide us with few absolute truths about our destinies, only probabilities about increased risks for disease and increased sensitivities to chemicals in our environment or to the foods we consume. ![]() Most of what genetics will tell us about ourselves will not be predictive, but suggestive. But genetic enlightenment will not be a one-sided affair. Drug efficacy will be increased, side effects reduced, and whole new classes of drugs introduced into the marketplace. This will have enormous benefits, both in terms of better health care and potential cost reductions. We will see an increasing "individualization" of medicine-an ability to match drugs and other therapeutic interventions to an individual's genetic makeup and physiology. Certainly within the next 15 years, genotyping technologies capable of "reading" key genetic information from blood or saliva samples will become standard tools in medical practice. It is entirely possible, given present trends in sequencing technologies, that by 2040 each of us could have our entire genome sequenced for under $150. When some future historian chronicles the 20th century, the sequencing of the Human Genome will certainly stand out as one of mankind's greatest achievements. Careers, Fellowships, and Internships Open/Close.Wahba Institute for Strategic Competition.Science and Technology Innovation Program.Refugee and Forced Displacement Initiative.The Middle East and North Africa Workforce Development Initiative.Kissinger Institute on China and the United States.Nuclear Proliferation International History Project.North Korea International Documentation Project.Environmental Change and Security Program.Hyundai Motor-Korea Foundation Center for Korean History and Public Policy. ![]()
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