ABSTRACT
Advances in science and technology have enabled us to alter the human person. It is now possible to replace organs, change one’s appearance drastically, extend one’s life by long periods and even change one’s gender. There is very little we cannot tinker with, in the human body and the natural world. To this long list of achievements, we can now add the discovery of the ‘book of life’.1 The Human Genome Project (HGP) has revealed, more than any other biology project, the nature of the most important molecules of life – genes. Genes are considered the ‘Holy Grail’ of biology,2 and have unlocked the potential for a quantum leap in our understanding of the human body, the functions within it and of life itself.3 The human genome is a well-known symbol of scientific and technological progress. There is also no end to the rhetoric surrounding the human genome. This ‘secular equivalent of the soul’4 is the sum total of the genes in the human body and determines a lot of what we are and will become. Since the completion of the HGP in 2003, other projects have come to the forefront. Through the Human Proteome Project, stem-cell research, nanotechnology, robotics and artificial intelligence, we can expect to see the acquisition of more capabilities that are potentially speciesaltering in nature.5
