Genetics research and biotechnology development - while holding the promise of improved pharmaceuticals, medical treatments, and foods - is also raising concerns about the impact of market forces on scientific inquiry, product development, and the provision of health care.

In his professional life, Richard Posner is addressed as “Your Honor,” inasmuch as he is Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. He is also a senior lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School. Finally, he is a prolific author of books and articles in scholarly journals in which he expounds at length and with copious footnotes his particular views of jurisprudence and public policy. One of his frequent intellectual adversaries, legal philosopher Ronald Dworkin, (...) wryly described Judge Posner as “the lazy judge who writes a book before breakfast, decides several cases before noon, teaches all afternoon at the Chicago Law School, and performs brain surgery after dinner.”. (shrink)