Mastery Over Life: Promises and Perils of Biogenetics

William E. Halal

Chapter Chapter 5 in Technology’s Promise, 2008, pp 64-78 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract The advance of medicine has been long and slow. As George Washington lay dying from a throat ailment, his physicians bled him occasionally to “relieve the body of foul humours” — actually draining away the very energy needed to survive. Just a few decades ago, before the discovery of penicillin, we were helpless against wave after wave of tuberculosis, typhoid, plague, smallpox, whopping cough, polio, and other horrible illnesses that swept through society at will. Today, less than 10% of deaths in modern nations are due to infectious disease, while the other 90% are the result of environment, genetics, and lifestyle.1

Keywords: Down Syndrome; Life Extension; Computer Chip; Genetic Therapy; Christmas Tree (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2008
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palchp:978-0-230-58253-8_5

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.palgrave.com/9780230582538

DOI: 10.1057/9780230582538_5

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Palgrave Macmillan Books from Palgrave Macmillan
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().