More on DNA maps
It’s also worth mentioning the issues of discrimination that go along with this type of thing. We discriminate insurance on the basis of age, you have to be a certain level of fitness to join the army (though why would you want to?), etc. So if all genes could be identified, and we could map a person’s genetic code in a reasonable amount of time (a possible side-benefit to this research) then might firms start discriminating on how likely you are to get cancer, or to have a heart attack, or any other illness? Could your health insurance go up simply because you have a predisposition to heart disease? If so, is that fair or not? Health insurance, if you’re really blunt, already works by healthy people paying for the treatment of the sick. People hope they never need to use it, but if they do, they want to know they’re covered. So might it not be fair for the people more likely to use it to contribute more? I don’t think that’s fair, but it’s also hard to find a flaw in the argument - it kind of depends what side of the fence you’re on… IBM has already said it won’t have any genetic testing or discrimination. But it’s also easy to imagine a Gattaca type scenario, particularly with the push for national ID cards, etc.
Let’s hope that common sense prevails, hey?
nando Says:
What’s the difference in taking notes about the smoking habits and the genetic predispositions of a person? None. It would be fair enough in a free market capitalist world. It’s as fair from the business point as it is, perhaps, from the Buddhist point of view, for example. It’s karma. You release some act in the world and it gets back at you (I know where this is gonna end and I don’t have ways to make a point on reincarnation, sorry). But if you agree with Newton and Einstein, you’d take that nothing happens by chance in the universe - and nothing is nothing (there is no midterm for it). Thus, when they used to say that you gotta PAY for what you do here in this life, maybe it’s truth, and beyond: you’ll take it with you for the next lives, and health insurance will charge you for that.
It’s an interesting idea. And maybe it would erase the coldness of Gattaca and input some “common sense”. Because it would put you together in the *future generations* scenario. That would definitely bring more conscience into our acts of today - for us and for the whole planet.
BrettW Says:
The difference is between the things you do, and the things you may have inclination to do. A genetic predisposition to cancer doesn’t mean you have cancer, but having a smoking habit means you smoke.
I’d disagree that Buddhism says anything of the sort, but that’s another debate entirely and not suited to this forum.
Also, if you agree with Planck and Bohr and co, *many* things happen by chance. That’s quantum mechanics for you.
nando Says:
There’s misplaced arguments here. Firstly, your genes are not an “inclination to do” anything, they’re who you are, phisically. But most important than that: the fact that you smoke doesn’t give you cancer, it gives you a predisposition to have cancer, and the same thing does the analysis of your genetic code. We’re talk *predisposition* here - from the point of view of health insurance. To smoke or to have a specific code gives you similar predisposition to the same problem.
About Buddhism, yes, I agree with Planck and Bohr. And beyond, with Krishnamurti, so if you take the *end of time* seriously (like Bohr takes), you cannot deny karma (well, karma is a overused word, now with mixed meanings, I’ll find another one, I promise). But we’re not going into that, it’s a long mathematics. I just would like to say there is no way that just some part of the universe works by authorship (responsability) and the other one works by chance, like for no law or intention at all. Newton talks about our dimension of reality, that’s why he holds the key to the karma we can see, while Plank holds the key to something else, that enters another dimension, that’s where the very idea of autorship begins. Or not. 
[…] erstanding of our bodies and life, and we’re well on the way. Update: More thoughts here.
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