Exploding the Gene Myth : How Genetic Information Is Produced and Manipulated by Scientists, Physicians, Employers, Insurance Companies, Educators, and Law Enforcers

Author: Ruth Hubbard, Elijah Wald
List Price: $17.50
Our Price: Click to see the latest and low price
ISBN: 0807004316
Publisher: Beacon Press (01 May, 1999)
Sales Rank: 160,282
Average Customer Rating: 3.25 out of 5

Customer Reviews

Rating: 1 out of 5
Rhetoric Against a Needed Science
Ruth Hubbard uses the rhetoric of exaggeration to try to convince us to abandon genetic research. But if genes didn't matter then monkeys could talk and if environment didn't matter then we wouldn't have schools. Obviously they BOTH matter.

Let us use the objective methods of science to document the specifics of what is genetically determined and what is environmentally determined.

Any serious AIDS researcher knows that without genetic research we have no chance of defeating AIDS. Obviously we need to study genetics to maintain progress against disease.

Rating: 5 out of 5
A brilliantly written book
Dr. Hubbard gives her readers much to think about, and she backs up everything she's written. She explains how the popularly-held reductionist view of genetics does not tell the whole story. Her book explains how the public often only hears one side of the story when it comes to the potential of the latest genetic technologies.

Rating: 2 out of 5
The work of a good scientist, an abysmal social commentator
Hubbard does deserve credit for throwing some skepticism on "the next big thing" in science, genetic technology. Unfortunately, she combines her skeptical analysis with her hopelessly egalitarian political views, obscuring any positive contributions this book could have. Hubbard goes through every expected cliche - Nazi imagery (social pundits never tire of this), playing the "race card, and discouraging scientific progress as "unneccessary". Read this book only if you wish to glimpse the future of awful politically-correct rhetoric.

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