Contingencies 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.

My genetics are good, but they aren't crazy He-Man style.

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

… the policy of genes

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

I think genetic research is a fascinating and fertile area.

Genetics is all about showcasing human beauty along with high-quality performance.

There's massive government initiatives going around the world, and you see that there's a real enthusiasm for genetics.

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.

The most profound change that genetics brings about might not be scientific at all. It might be mental and even spiritual enrichment: a more expansive sense of who we humans are, existentially, and where we came from, and how we fit with other life on earth.

While our amplified knowledge of genetics - and the increasing precision of the field - does make it tempting to take on celebrity cases, retro-genetics can't always provide clear answers.

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

Our Achilles heel is that we haven’t been able to successfully explain why it’s fair to penalize [insurance] applicants for risk factors they can’t control.

We used to think that our destiny is in the stars. Now we know that its in our genes, in our DNA.

Law for the Prevention of Genetically Diseased Offspring

One of the things that got me interested in genetics was the relationship between genes and environment. We are all dealt a certain deck of cards, but our environment can influence the outcomes.

My DNA is building a product and a service.

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.

When I was 16, my dad took me to a DNA conference at the Exploratorium science museum in San Francisco, California, and I was captivated by this way of looking at biology and by the discussions of bits of nucleic acid that could make us sick.

I don't spend a lot of time thinking about my genes because I can't do anything about them.

I'm fascinated with genetic science, and I have been for a very long time. I always look at science and technology because I think that the developments in my lifetime have been so remarkable - and we're only at the tip of the iceberg with projects like decoding the human genome.

Like the early days of the Internet, the dawn of personal genomics promises benefits and pitfalls that no one can foresee.

It used to be thought that our genes were historically immutable and that it was not possible to imagine a conversation between culture and genetics.

Genetics is about how information is stored and transmitted between generations.

I didn't want my genome to be sequenced by any of the companies that were out there doing the partial sequences just from the point of view of commercialisation.