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Editorial
Nature 441, 255 (18 May 2006) | doi:10.1038/441255a; Published online 17 May 2006
No easy answers
Abstract
Britain's regulator has taken a sensible approach to the fraught question of what kinds of genetic testing should be permitted on embryos.
There is no gene for the human spirit, declared the producers of the 1997 movie Gattaca, which related the sobering tale of a eugenic community that had overestimated the usefulness of genes in predicting a person's destiny. The movie's hero, Vincent, overcomes a damning genetic prognosis and resultant discrimination to become an astronaut, while the fall guy, Jerome, fails to achieve the athletic prowess supposedly encoded in his DNA.
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