Eunity?

The scientific community would like to buy the world a Coke. Well, not exactly; they’d just like to bring us all together as one large and getting-along family of mankind. The way to do this, according to Matthew Stremlau, is through unbridled, unlimited gene research. Writing from the State Department (that’s scary), Mr. Stremlau reassures us that individual genes cannot account for every human trait or characteristic. The reality is much more complex, and involves the interaction and intermingling of many genes. But if we ever want to be able to figure out how our genetic structures function to make us the people we are (and why would we want to do that, I wonder?), we’ll need more research. And no ethical restraints on that research, either. Let it all hang out. Let’s get all the scientists in the world together, pass out some Cokes, sing a bar or two of “I’d like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony”, and have at those genes. Mr. Stremlau suggests, when it comes to the best way to promote more gene research, “perhaps the best solution is not more oversight by ethics boards but, rather, investment in training scientists from around the world – particularly the developing world” (The Wilson Quarterly, Summer, 2009). He adds, “Only when people from around the world participate in genomics will we get a complete picture of human variation and its role in determining our complex traits.” He hopes that “one day, all humans will again be a single race – as they existed many thousands of years ago, before they left Africa.” True eunity, as it were – as in “eugenics”?