ABSTRACT
Genetics, a young science and an even younger clinical specialty, has become a household word. It is virtually impossible to read a newspaper or magazine or to turn on the radio or television set without encountering something about genetics. In fact, as US medicine and society becomes more oriented toward health maintenance and disease prevention and less oriented toward crisis management and death forestalling, this new genetic technology will be appreciated for the revolutionary development it is. The chapter describes a number of ways in which new genetic technologies and strategies may affect the future of clinical medicine. The discovery of Recombinant deoxyribonucleic acid technology in the 1970s by Cohen and H. W. Boyer was to the application of genetics what the formulation of the double helix had been to the fundamental understanding of gene structure and function. From the ancient discovery of fire to the modern discovery of atomic energy, profound scientific discoveries have engendered powerful societal debates.
