Audiobook9 hours
Genomic Politics: How the Revolution in Genomic Science Is Shaping American Society
Written by Jennifer Hochschild
Narrated by Samara Naeymi
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
5/5
()
About this audiobook
The emergence of genomic science in the last quarter century has revolutionized medicine, the justice system, and our understanding of who we are. We use genomics to determine guilt and exonerate the falsely convicted; devise new
medicines; test embryos; and discover our ethnic and national roots. One might think that, given these advances, most would favor the availability of genomic tools. Yet as Jennifer Hochschild explains in Genomic Politics, the uses of genomic
science are both politically charged and hotly contested. After all, genomics might result in bioterrorism, a demand for “designer babies,” or a revival of racial biology.
Political divisions around genomics do not follow the usual left-right ideological patterns that dominate most of American politics. Through four controversial innovations resulting from genomic science—medicines for heart disease
approved for use by only African-Americans, on the grounds of genetic distinctiveness; use of DNA evidence in the criminal justice system; the search for one’s roots through genetic ancestry; and the use of genetic tests in prenatal
exams—Hochschild reveals how the phenomenon is polarizing America in novel ways. Advocates of genomic science argue that these applications will make life better, while opponents point out the potential for misuse—from racial profiling
to “selecting out” fetuses that gene tests show to have conditions like Down syndrome.
Hochschild’s central message is that the divide hinges on answers to two questions: How significant are genetic factors in explaining human traits and behaviors? And what is the right balance between risk acceptance and risk
avoidance for a society grappling with innovations arising from genomic science? Experts differ among themselves about who should make decisions about governing genomics’ uses, and Americans as a whole trust almost no one to do so.
A deeply researched and original analysis of the politics surrounding one of the signal issues of our times, this is essential reading for anyone interested in how the genetics revolution is shaping society.
medicines; test embryos; and discover our ethnic and national roots. One might think that, given these advances, most would favor the availability of genomic tools. Yet as Jennifer Hochschild explains in Genomic Politics, the uses of genomic
science are both politically charged and hotly contested. After all, genomics might result in bioterrorism, a demand for “designer babies,” or a revival of racial biology.
Political divisions around genomics do not follow the usual left-right ideological patterns that dominate most of American politics. Through four controversial innovations resulting from genomic science—medicines for heart disease
approved for use by only African-Americans, on the grounds of genetic distinctiveness; use of DNA evidence in the criminal justice system; the search for one’s roots through genetic ancestry; and the use of genetic tests in prenatal
exams—Hochschild reveals how the phenomenon is polarizing America in novel ways. Advocates of genomic science argue that these applications will make life better, while opponents point out the potential for misuse—from racial profiling
to “selecting out” fetuses that gene tests show to have conditions like Down syndrome.
Hochschild’s central message is that the divide hinges on answers to two questions: How significant are genetic factors in explaining human traits and behaviors? And what is the right balance between risk acceptance and risk
avoidance for a society grappling with innovations arising from genomic science? Experts differ among themselves about who should make decisions about governing genomics’ uses, and Americans as a whole trust almost no one to do so.
A deeply researched and original analysis of the politics surrounding one of the signal issues of our times, this is essential reading for anyone interested in how the genetics revolution is shaping society.
Related to Genomic Politics
Related audiobooks
The End of Genetics: Designing Humanity's DNA Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Epidemics and Society: From the Black Death to the Present Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Science Denial: Why It Happens and What to Do About It Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Denying to the Grave: Why We Ignore the Science That Will Save Us Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGenetics in the Madhouse: The Unknown History of Human Heredity Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsUnder the Influence: Putting Peer Pressure to Work Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5War on Science: Who's waging it, why it matters, what we can do about it. Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5DNA Is Not Destiny: The Remarkable, Completely Misunderstood Relationship between You and Your Genes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Cancer in the Family: Take Control of Your Genetic Inheritance Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Human Flourishing in an Age of Gene Editing Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCRISPR People: The Science and Ethics of Editing Humans Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Passion for Ignorance: What We Choose Not to Know and Why Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A Primer of Life Histories: Ecology, Evolution, and Application Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFuture Morality Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPandemic Aftermath: How Coronavirus Changes Global Society Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe First Shots: The Epic Rivalries and Heroic Science Behind the Race to the Coronavirus Vaccine Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsQuack Quack: The Threat of Pseudoscience Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Better Ape: The Evolution of the Moral Mind and How it Made us Human Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Life as We Made It: How 50,000 Years of Human Innovation Refined - And Redefined - Nature Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Guns, an American Conversation: How to Bridge Political Divides Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSex, Power, and Partisanship: How Evolutionary Science Makes Sense of Our Political Divide Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPower, Pleasure, and Profit: Insatiable Appetites from Machiavelli to Madison Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Long Land War: The Global Struggle for Occupancy Rights Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCrashes, Crises, and Calamities: How We Can Use Science to Read the Early-Warning Signs Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Captured Economy: How the Powerful Enrich Themselves, Slow Down Growth, and Increase Inequality Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Human Network: How Your Social Position Determines Your Power, Beliefs, and Behaviors Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Algorithms for the People: Democracy in the Age of AI Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Scroogenomics: Why You Shouldn't Buy Presents for the Holidays Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5
Public Policy For You
Barbarians inside the Gates and Other Controversial Essays Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Bond King: How One Man Made a Market, Built an Empire, and Lost It All Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Bowling Alone: Revised and Updated: The Collapse and Revival of American Community Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Zero To One by Peter Thiel; Blake Masters - Book Summary: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Diversity Delusion: How Race and Gender Pandering Corrupt the University and Undermine Our Culture Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Why We Did It: A Travelogue from the Republican Road to Hell Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5America's Cultural Revolution: How the Radical Left Conquered Everything Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hatemonger: Stephen Miller, Donald Trump, and the White Nationalist Agenda Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5It's Even Worse Than You Think: What the Trump Administration Is Doing to America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Is Reality Optional?: And Other Essays Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Vision of the Anointed: Self-congratulation as a Basis for Social Policy Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Ever Wonder Why?: And Other Controversial Essays Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Big Bets: How Large-Scale Change Really Happens Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Controversial Essays Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5To Raise A Boy: Classrooms, Locker Rooms, Bedrooms, and the Hidden Struggles of American Boyhood Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Apocalypse Never: Why Environmental Alarmism Hurts Us All Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The End of Policing Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The People's Hospital: Hope and Peril in American Medicine Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5How to Kill a City: Gentrification, Inequality, and the Fight for the Neighborhood Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Battle for the American Mind: Uprooting a Century of Miseducation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hide Your Children: Exposing Marxists Behind the Attack on America's Kids Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The War on Small Business: How the Government Used the Pandemic to Crush the Backbone of America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5My Side of the River: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Not a Crime to Be Poor: The Criminalization of Poverty in America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Great Displacement: Climate Change and the Next American Migration Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Long Time Coming: Reckoning with Race in America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Genomic Politics
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
5/5
3 ratings1 review
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Hochschild, an academic political scientist, has been closely following genomic research for the last decade. In this book, she presents a comprehensive summary of where the politics of genomics currently is in America and where we are going. She contends that genomics hasn’t split into traditional left-versus-right camps (yet) primarily because most people tend to be for curing difficult diseases. However, other camps are forming, and she accordingly divides public opinion into Enthusiasts, Hopefuls, Skeptics, and Rejectors. In her surveys, most Americans (4/5) fall into the Enthusiast or Hopeful groups.Obviously, this can and will change at some point. By analyzing the recent past, Hochschild tries to provide us a lens into the future. She divides practical ramifications into three main areas – ancestral, forensic/legal, and biomedical – and analyzes each according to her grid. She also attempts to ascertain our current situation from the position of genomic experts as well as the masses. Finally, she concludes with a probing view into the future, from what’s told to her and from her own perspective.She wisely tries to identify potential controversies and lynchpins for change. She aims to analyze objective evidence rather than persuade and wants her readers to see the global view instead of just agreeing with her (or someone’s) take. The book seems to succeed at this goal. This academic approach, as one would expect from a Harvard professor, is welcoming in an era of bellicose chattering on cable news television.Potential audiences abound for this work. Both conservatives and liberals will welcome the level-headed thinking even though each group might naturally find some parts off-putting. Wishing to envisage the future through a crystal ball, politicos, policy wonks, and genomic scientists all might gain pearls of wisdom. Even the interested American citizen might likewise benefit from reading this work. Its tone is definitely academic, but Hochschild tries to keep the popular audience involved without diverging into mere academic chatter.Overall, this work comprehensively tackles a difficult issue and provides some insight. Only time will tell how right or wrong she is. The author does not claim to be able to divine the future, but by deeply analyzing the past and the present, she provides the reading public with a gem.