In Beyond Genetics, Glenn McGee, the founding editor of the American Journal of Bioethics and an associate director at the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School, charts the course of the future. The future of humanity, that is, in a brave new world radically altered by genetic science. According to McGee, humans will soon "be capable diagnosing their own illnesses, designating the sex of their children, even designing the food they eat - all as easily as using a cell phone." Beyond Genetics is his primer on understanding both the perils and promise of a world in which genes are modified as easily as - well, as easily as one might change a pair of jeans.

I found McGee's writing to be occasionally contradictory - while he repeatedly stresses how many devices and techniques will be available to virtually everyone within less than a decade, he simultaneously mentions how much research and testing is required to really understand what certain genetic tests might mean. For example, while it is possible to test (even now) for a genetic predisposition to breast cancer, the actual level of risk is difficult to quantify and might encourage radical physical intervention and removal of currently healthy tissue in attempts to "prevent" cancer when there is no certainty that cancer would ever actually develop.

To be honest, one of the most fearsome aspects of this coming genetic revolution is something McGee recognizes as a problem as well: it is the commercialization of genetic testing and manipulation. In his recent book Overdo$ed America, Dr. John Abramson demonstrated in devastating detail how the drug industry had perverted research to its own ends and had embarked upon a massive "direct-to-consumer" marketing scheme that largely bypassed any rigorous examination of the real merits of a particular product. The commercialization of genetic science promises similar problems as companies market their genetic "cures" directly to patients with little research to support their contentions and conclusions.

Beyond Genetics offers fascinating insights into the ethical and legal implications of genetic science. McGee does attack certain logical inconsistencies regarding some aspects of genetic science (for example, that DNA samples offered up for DNA testing is protected by "police and fifty pages of forms" while other tissue samples are routinely surrendered in hospital settings and could certainly be used for DNA testing as well). At the same time, he seems to recognize the validity of at least some of the concerns that genetic testing might create. Ultimately, however, he seems to acknowledge the validity of say, legislatively requiring testing for certain conditions, refusing insurance based upon certain genetic criteria, and a host of other legal requirements that do smell much like "eugenics" by another name. "Eugenics" was a broadly worded catchall for a variety of overt selective breeding techniques adopted during the early 20th Century (the goal being the improvement of society by assuring that "poor stock" did not propagate - principles reflected in the activities of the Nazis and the mandatory sterilization of the mentally ill here in America).