Leon R. Kass

About the author: Leon R. Kass is Addie Clark Harding professor at the University of Chicago. Trained in medicine and biochemistry, he writes frequently about bioethical issues such as human genetic engineering and physicianassisted suicide. With James Q. Wilson, he is coauthor of The Ethics of Human Cloning.

The public is right to doubt the ethics of applying gene-altering technology to humans. Unlike conventional medicine, this technology could affect not only existing individuals but others not yet born or even conceived. Knowledge of one's own genetic weaknesses may threaten human free will, and being able to change the genes of one's offspring may endanger human dignity by making children into manufactured commodities. Gene manipulation is likely to move from therapy (curing diseases) to enhancement, or adding characteristics...