Chapter 2 
Introduction 
Humankiiul is gaining an increasing under- 
standing ot heredity and \ ariation among Ii\ ing 
tilings— the science of genetics. I his report e.\- 
amines hotli the critical issues arising from the 
science and technologies that spring trom ge- 
netics, and the potential impacts of these ad- 
vances on society. Ihey ai'e the most rapidly 
progressing areas of human know ledge in the 
world today. 
(lenetic technologies e.xist onl\ within the 
largei' conte.xt of a maturing science. The key to 
planning for their potential is understanding 
not simjih a [larticulai’ technologv', oi' breeding 
[iiogram, or new opportunity foi' investment, 
hut how the field of genetics works and how it 
intei'acts with society as a vv hole. 
The technologies that this I'eport assesses can 
he expected to hav e pervasiv e effects on life in 
the future. They touch on the most fundamen- 
tal and intimate needs of mankind: health care, 
supplies of food and enei'gv , and reproduction. 
.\t the same time, they trigger concerns in areas 
The origins of genetics 
For the past 10,000 years, a period encom- 
passing less than one-half of 1 percent of man’s 
time on Earth, the human race has developed 
under the impetus of applied genetics. As tech- 
niques for planning, cultivating, and storing 
crops replaced subsistence hunting and forag- 
ing, the character of humanity changed as well. 
From the domestication of animals to the devel- 
opment of permanent settlements, from the rise 
of modern science to the dawn of biotech- 
nology, the genetic changes that mankind has 
directed have, in turn, affected the nature of his 
society. 
Applied genetics depends on a fundamental 
principle— that organisms both resemble and 
differ from their parents. It must have required 
great faith on the part of Neolithic man to bury 
etiually as important: the dwindling su|)|ilies of 
natural resources, the risks involved in basic 
and applied scientific research and develop- 
ment, and the nature of innovation itself. 
•As always, some decisions concerning the use 
of the new technologies will he made by the 
marketplace, while others will he made by var- 
ious institutions, both public and pi’ivate. In the 
coming years, the public and its rei)resentatives 
in (Congress and other gov ernmental bodies will 
be called on to make difficult decisions because 
of society’s knowledge about genetics and its 
capabilities. 
Fhis report does not make recommendations 
noi' does it attempt to resolve conflicts. Kather, 
it clarifies the bases for making judgments by 
defining the likely impacts of a group of technol- 
ogies and tracing their economic, societal, legal, 
and ethical implications. The new genetics will 
be influential for a long time to come. Although 
it will continue to change, it is not too early to 
begin to monitor its course. 
perfectly good grain during one season in the 
hope of growing a new crop several months 
later— faith not only that the seed would indeed 
return, but that it w ould do so in the form of the 
same grain-producing crop from which it had 
sprung. This permanence of form from one 
generation to the next has been scientifically 
understood only within the past century, but 
the understanding has transformed vague be- 
liefs in the inheritance of traits into the science 
of genetics, and rule-of-thumb animal and plant 
breeding into the modern manipulations of 
genetic engineering. 
The major conceptual boost for the science 
of genetics required a shift in perspective, 
from the simple observation that characteristics 
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