Stock, Gregory. Redesigning humans; choosing our genes, changing our future.

Houghton Mifflin. 277p. notes. bibliog. index. c2003. 0-618-34083-1. $14.00. SA

Amniocentesis, in vitro fertilization and embryo selection make it possible to avoid bearing children with certain genetic diseases--or of a particular gender. Those biomedical technologies were initially surrounded by controversy, and many people continue to find them deeply troubling. But they look tame compared to the direct tinkering with individual genetic make-up that is already on its way. Gregory Stock believes that the use of "germinal choice technology," i.e., choosing embryos on the basis of genotype, cloning, or changing genes in germinal cells (eggs or sperm), should not necessarily be seen as a horrifying prospect. Why not try to manage evolution to make humans healthier and happier? In any case, he argues, the human drive for improving ourselves and our children is so strong that these new forms of genetic engineering will inevitably be used--just as people have embraced plastic surgery to look better, anabolic steroids to increase strength, and cochlear implants to remedy deafness. The task for individuals and public policy is not to thwart these technologies but to deal with them wisely.

Stock, who directs the program on Medicine, Technology and Society at UCLA's School of Public Health, employs a restrained rhetoric, thought-provoking real-world examples, and a minimum of technical detail to make his points. Although the writing (at the level of The New York Times Magazine) may be too difficult for some students, teachers can use Stock's two appendices, which spell out the challenges of regulation (e.g., how much power should self-serving parents have over their future children's genes?), to start lively discussions of bioethical questions students may well confront personally very soon. Karen Reeds, Princeton Research Forum, Princeton, NJ