Oxford paperbacks
1 total work
Robin McKie, science correspondent for "The Observer", guides the reader through the current research on genes and aims to cover all the most commonly asked questions about genetically transmitted diseases - what are they? How do they occur? How can the risks be reduced? Can they be cured? What promises does the future hold? He investigates the advances in diagnosis and gene therapy as well as gene splicing and cloning, the designing of special drugs and DNA fingerprinting, and discusses ethical problems that arise from this expanding area of research. The book also discusses such questions as whether genetic screening programmes will become widespread and if so, whether they will lead to unfair discrimination, how to define handicap and, if we can start "designing" our own babies, what will we design? The book is aimed at anyone who wants to understand how their genes work, how they go wrong and what the prospects are now and in the future for coping with genetically inherited diseases.