Reprogenetics is a term referring to the merging of reproductive and genetic technologies expected to happen in the near future as techniques like preimplantation genetic diagnosis become more available and more powerful. The term was coined by Lee M. Silver, a professor of molecular biology at Princeton University, in his 1997 book Remaking Eden. Reproductive technology is a term for all current and anticipated uses of technology in human and animal reproduction, including: artificial insemination artificial wombs cloning (see human cloning for the special case of human beings) cryopreservation of sperm, oocytes, embryos embryo testing embryo transfer genetic engineering hormone treatment to increase fertility... Genetics (from the Greek genno γεννώ= give birth) is the science of genes, heredity, and the variation of organisms. ... In medicine and (clinical) genetics preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) is a method to test embryos for genetic disorders before they are reimplanted in the uterus. ... (born 1952) is a professor at Princeton University (as of 07/2005) in the Department of Molecular Biology and the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. ... Molecular biology is the study of biology at a molecular level. ... Princeton University, located in Princeton, New Jersey, is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States. ...

Definition

In Silver's formulation, reprogenetics will involve advances in a number of technologies not yet achieved, but not inherently impossible. Among these are improvements in interpreting the effects of different expressions of DNA, the ability to harvest large numbers of embryos from females, and a far higher rate of reinsertion of embryos into host mothers. The end result, according to Silver, is that those parents who can afford it will be able to pick out the genetic characteristics of their own children, which Silver says will trigger a number of social changes in the decades after its implementation. Possible early applications, however, might be closer to eliminating disease genes passed on to children. Space-filling model of a section of DNA molecule Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions specifying the biological development of all cellular forms of life (and most viruses). ... Embryos (and one tadpole) of the wrinkled frog (Rana rugosa). ...

According to Silver, the main differences between reprogenetics and eugenics, the "science" of improving the gene pool which in the first half of the twentieth century became infamous for the brutal policies it inspired, is that most eugenics programs were compulsory programs imposed upon citizens by governments trying to enact an ultimate goal. Eugenics is the self-direction of human evolution: Logo from the Second International Congress of Eugenics, 1921, depicting it as a tree which unites a variety of different fields. ... Phrenology is seen today as a classic example of pseudoscience. ...

Reprogenetics, by contrast, would be pursued by individual parents, who would be trying to improve their children with the same motivations that compel them to purchase expensive courses in preparation for standardized testing (e.g. the SAT). Standardized testing is any test that is used across a variety of schools or other situations. ... The SATs (pronounced S-A-T, not the action sat), formerly called the Scholastic Aptitude Tests and Scholastic Assessment Tests, are standardized tests frequently used by colleges and universities in the United States to aid in the selection of incoming students. ...

Eugenics would have required a continual selection for breeding of the "fit", and a culling of the "unfit" while, according to bioethicist James Hughes, reprogenetics would permit the conversion of all the unfit to the highest genetic level in a socially democratic society but it could create a two-tiered society of "GenRich" and "GenPoor", genetically-engineered "haves" and "have nots", in a libertarian society. Towards the end of Silver's book he speculates that humans with access to reprogenetic technology and those without it could, over time, even become separate species, unable to interbreed. However, Lee now concedes to the criticism made by evolutionary biologists that speciation cannot occur without reproductive isolation and is therefore unlikely to happen. James Hughes Ph. ... Social democracy is a political ideology emerging in the late 19th and early 20th centuries from supporters of Marxism who believed that the transition to a socialist society could be achieved through democratic evolutionary rather than revolutionary means. ... This article deals with the libertarianism as defined in America and several other nations. ... Speciation refers to the evolutionary process by which new biological species arise. ...

The other contrast is that it is now known that the concept of genetic purity through eugenics is misguided: this form of genetic purity, insofar as it is meaningful, is effectively inbreeding and results in poor health and infertility while the end effect of reprogenetics on the gene pool would be reduced incidence of genetic disease and potentially increased genetic IQ. Inbreeding is breeding between close relatives. ... Infertility is the inability to naturally conceive a child or the inability to carry a pregnancy to term. ... The gene pool of a species or a population is the complete set of unique alleles that would be found by inspecting the genetic material of every living member of that species or population. ... A genetic disorder, or genetic disease is a disease caused by abnormal expression of one or more genes in a person causing a clinical phenotype. ... IQ redirects here; for other uses of that term, see IQ (disambiguation). ...

Criticism

Skeptics believe that the latter is rendered less likely by the very great complexity of the genome with respect to intelligence (half of all genes are expressed somewhere in the brain), not to mention the environmental influences from conception to adulthood. However, in a recent study of hundreds of American child geniuses, Robert Plomin of London's Institute of Psychiatry found specific genes on chromosome 4 that only the genius children have. Although research in this area is still fairly contentious, these findings and others accumulating evidence give support to the idea that there are a finite number of genes that determine general intelligence, and not just separate genes determining individual intellectual capacities such as memory, spatial visualization or verbal skills. A genius is a person with distinguished mental prowess. ... The Institute of Psychiatry, a faculty of Kings College London, United Kingdom, is one of the worlds largest postgraduate teaching and research centres in the sciences relevant to mental health. ...

Some argue that genetic disease will never be eliminated, since mutations and chromosomal errors, e.g. Downs Syndrome, will always arise. Furthermore, they conclude that heterozygote advantage means that elimination of a genetic disease may lower the fitness of the majority or at least a significant number of people; well meaning as it might be. Silver counter-argues that those who make this argument believe that all members of a species function together in genetic terms, when this point of view has no basis in reality, as the concept of the gene pool was invented as a tool for developing mathematical models by biologists who study populations of animals or plants. It is calculated as the frequencies with which particular alleles at particular genes occur across all of the members of a population that interbreed with each other. However, genes do not function in human populations (except in the virtual sense imagined by biologists), they function within individuals. And there is no species-wide knowledge or storage of particular alleles for use in future generations. A heterozygote advantage (heterozygous advantage or overdominance) describes the case in which the heterozygote genotype has a higher relative fitness than either the homozygote dominant or homozygote recessive genotype. ... The gene pool of a species or a population is the complete set of unique alleles that would be found by inspecting the genetic material of every living member of that species or population. ... An allele is any one of a number of viable DNA codings of the same gene (sometimes the term refers to a non-gene sequence) occupying a given locus (position) on a chromosome. ...

See also

• Bioconservatism
• Designer baby
• Genetic counseling
• Liberal eugenics
• Techno-progressivism

Bioconservatism is a stance of hesitancy about biotechnological development especially if it is perceived to threaten a social order. ... The term designer babies has been used in popular scientific and bioethics literature to specify children whose hereditary makeup (genes and genome) can be, using various reproductive and genetic technologies, purposefully selected (designed) by their parents. ... Genetic counseling generally refers to prenatal counseling done when a genetic condition is suspected in a pregnancy. ... Liberal eugenics is the study and use of genetic engineering to improve human beings, specifically in regards to biological characteristics and capacities. ... Techno-progressivism, technoprogressivism, or tech-progressivism, is a stance of active support for technological development. ...

References

• Lee M. Silver, Remaking Eden: Cloning and Beyond in a Brave New World (New York: Avon Books, 1997)

External links

• Lee M. Silver's webpage
• "Genetics in the New Millennium: The Promise of Reprogenetics" by Walter Kistler