Abstract

Much has happened in the years since I wrote much of the previous Chapters, especially in the world of health care, medicine in particular but even more in medical and bio-medical research. The latter, indeed, is substantially responsible for many of the significant changes in clinical practice, diagnosis and prognosis in recent times. On reflection, it remains somewhat unclear to me that these changes, such as they may be, will also alter the moral themes and basic approach of the preceding Chapters. But since so much has in fact happened, it seemed to me only appropriate to include the following reflections on what had come to be known early in the past two decades as the ‘new genetics’ Is human nature obsolete? Genetics, bioengineering, and the future of the human condition. MIT Press, Boston, pp 177–207, 2004)