Nothing is more revolutionary than the ability to 
manipulate DMA, the very essence that defines the uniqueness 
of all species and individuals within a species. Several 
years ago, Roilin Hotchkiss one of the leading experts on 
the genetics of DNA wrote: 
"Many of us feel an instinctive revulsion at 
meddling with the finely balanced factors that 
make an individual what he is. Yet I believe 
it will surely be done or attempted. The path- 
way will be built on a combination of altruism, 
private profit and ignorance." 
To which Philip Abelson, editor of Science replied: 
"I agree. Geneticists will have high ideals for 
the application of their knowledge. In practice, 
power to apply that knowledge, as was the case 
with nuclear energy, will come to rest in other 
hands. " 
I believe that we are all contributing the tools to a 
technology that will ultimately be used to alter the human 
genotype. Who will do it; on what scale; why will it be done? 
I don’t know. The current interest in sociobiology; race, 
social class and IQ, innate aggressiveness and territoriality 
suggest a social climate in which genetic engineering might 
be acceptable. Suppose, for example, you were told that there 
is a genetically-distincu class of people who from the moment 
of conception can be predicted to have a high probability of 
never completing high school, of having IQs belcw 100, of 
being economically impoverished, malnourished, involved in 
crime and dying prematurely. Humanitarian and economic 
justification fcr genetic intervention could be advanced, 
but this description fits Blacks in ghettoes and Native 
Americans on some reserves. Here clearly the racial genotype 
is not the cause of the tragic prognosis, rather it is the 
societal conditions. But will we find it expedient to solve 
racism by tampering with race rather than changing social 
attitudes? In the same way, I don’t find it far out to foresee 
the accumulation of a toxic pollutant that is intractible to 
clean-up (perhaps PCBs will be a case). It could be proposed 
[Appendix A — 198] 
