Gregory Benford Quotes

We recognized in 1996 that, with progress in the field of genetics accelerating at a breathtaking pace, we need to ensure that advances in treatment and prevention of disease do not constitute a new basis for discrimination.

As a Christian, but also as a scientist responsible for overseeing the Human Genome Project, one of my concerns has been the limits on applications of our understanding of the genome. Should there be limits? I think there should. I think the public has expressed their concern about ways this information might be misused.

Though social eugenics was discredited long ago, we still often think of the genome in quasi-eugenic terms. When we read about the latest discovery of a link between a gene and a disease, we imagine that we've learned the cause of the disease, and we may even think we'll get a cure by fixing the gene.

The Human Genome Project alone is the Full Employment Act for bioethicists.

A lot of genetic testing hasn't been integrated into healthcare because it has been expensive. I want to make people realise that they have the ability to be in charge of their own health.

I think there's a lot of misunderstanding about genetic information and what you can and cannot learn. One of the things we try to do is educate individuals that knowing information is empowering.

Everybody is going to want to look at their genetics. You're going to want to get a genetic profile.

If I can get people to accept that a DNA test is nothing to be intimidated about, then we can do tests that determine how well you metabolise certain drugs and test for breast cancer.

It is important to democratize personal genetics and make it more accessible.

The science of genetics will complicate immensely national health insurance.

Many health organizations discourage patients from learning their ApoE genotype. They warn that people may not be able to cope with bad news or will misinterpret the results.

Every couple of weeks, someone writes in and says, '23andMe saved my life.'

Soon it will be a sin of parents to have a child that carries the heavy burden of genetic disease. We are entering a world where we have to consider the quality of our children.

One of the good things about the public Human Genome Project is that the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Institutes of Health spent a part of their budget on the ethical, legal, and social implications of their research.

My wife and I had been to the genetic counselor; my wife is not Jewish - she's the shiksha goddess type - and was negative for everything. But I was positive. I carried the gene for three genetic disorders, which, if she had been positive for, we would have passed down to the child.

My blood runs cold when I hear the 'great news' that we have found a marker for the Down's syndrome gene, which means we can identify it more easily. Why is that good news? It's only good news if you're going to terminate.

I did not want to raise a genetically compromised child. I did not want my children to have to contend with the massive diversion of parental attention, and the consequences of being compelled to care for their brother after I died. I wanted a genetically perfect baby, and because that was something I could control, I chose to end his life.

The fact that I have a risk genetically for Alzheimer's and blindness is not great news. But the reality is that any one of us will have dozens of these risks, and what we have to learn is how to deal with them.

Reich Committee for the Registration of Serious Hereditary and Congenital Illnesses

Just as we have addressed discrimination based on race, gender, and age, we must now prevent discrimination based on genetic information.

Your genetic profile may qualify you for the lowest insurance rate ever offered! You don’t have to subsidize anyone else’s inferior genes again! DNA Life Insurance Company introduces Immortal Life, the policy for the superior man or woman with unsurpassed gene fitness.

Individual wishes are driving the possible emergence of eugenics, not the state, because people want children for whom they can be ambitious.

Law for the Prevention of Genetically Diseased Offspring

Genetic testing in the future is going to be seen as critical as testing your cholesterol.

Being the first FDA-authorized direct-to-consumer genetic test out there is revolutionary.