Re: MSNBC feature on genetic testing

Alintelbot@aol.com
Thu, 9 Sep 1999 21:42:10 EDT

<<Several stories, including (what seem to me rather conservative) forecasts
for use of genetic testing. For instance: By 2040, says Francis Collins, we will have lifespans of 90 years. A real pessimist! :-) >>

This _does_ sound terribly conservative...to the point of sounding not a little ignorant. Of course, we had plenty of ultra-conservative standpoints and hype re. our future in space not so long ago, and many would argue that the conservatives were right. But they weren't right about what later became possible, only what was "politically prudent." I'm not sure this reasoning adheres to biomedicine, which is everyone's game and not, as was popularly conceived, a handful of Cold War technocrats.

Mac