Key Terms
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"We used to think our fate was in the stars. Now we know, in large measure, our fate is in our genes."
--James Watson, co-decoder of DNA's double helix
Genetic engineering is changing personal destiny by reading, and sometimes altering, human DNA. The traits of children can be determined at conception, and inherited disease can be treated at the source. Genetic programming modifies what nature has dealt us.
Still, we are inescapably shaped by our genetic inheritance, the DNA of our parents. Additionally, the environment into which we are born, including family, community, and country, shapes what we can and will become.
How much we are a product of our environment versus our parentage is the perennial nature-nurture debate, and is for philosophers, psychologists, and now also geneticists to work out. Almost everyone would agree that we tend to mirror our mothers and fathers. Knowing who they are and how they came to be tells us a lot about ourselves. The writers of Israel knew this, too.
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