The Human Genome and

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The Human Genome and Our View of
Ourselves Svante Pääbo
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CONNECTIONS I

• Svante Pääbo says that the human genome sequence
  shows that we are connected to all other life on
  earth. (Genome is the genetic material of an
  organism.)
• Pääbo says that the availability of a reference
  human DNA sequence is a milestone toward
  understanding how humans have evolved because it
  opens the door to large-scale comparative
  studies.
• Pääbo The major impact of such studies will be
  to reveal just how similar humans are
  genetically to each other and to other
  species.
• (Consider the relation of this remark to
  speciesism, and how it may affect our thinking
  about the use of humans and animals in research.)

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CONNECTIONS II

• Pääbo Some 10 of human genes are clearly
  related to particular genes in the fly and the
  worm. So, obviously, we share much of our
  genetic scaffold with even very distant
  relatives.
• The genetic connection of humans to other species
  allows us to talk about the unity of life.
• Pääbo No doubt the genomic view of our place in
  nature will be both a source of humility and a
  blow to the idea of human uniqueness.
• (Consider speciesism again.)

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MAN AND APES

• Pääbo The overall DNA sequence similarity
  between humans and chimpanzees is about 99.
• Pääbo Yet the few differences between our
  genome and that of the great apes will be
  profoundly interesting because among them lie the
  genetic prerequisites that make us different from
  all other animals.

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GENES AND CULTURE I

• Pääbo says that our genetic differences from
  other animals may reveal the genetic foundation
  for our rapid cultural evolution and geographic
  expansion, which started between 150,000 and
  50,000 years ago, and led to our current
  overbearing domination of the earth.

The Annunciation, Fra Angelico, 1430-1432
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GENES AND CULTURE II

• Pääbo The realization that one or a few genetic
  accidents made human history possible will
  provide us with a whole new set of philosophical
  challenges to think about.

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OUT OF AFRICA

• Pääbo The gene pool in Africa contains more
  variation that elsewhere, and . . . the genetic
  variation outside of Africa represents only a
  subset of that found within the African
  continent.
• Pääbo From a genetic perspective, all humans
  are therefore Africans, either residing in Africa
  or in recent exile.

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RACE I

• Pääbo What is called race, although
  culturally important, reflects just a few
  continuous traits determined by a tiny fraction
  of our genes.

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RACE II

• Pääbo From the perspective of our nuclear
  genes, it is often the case that two persons from
  the same part of the world who look superficially
  alike are less related to each other than they
  are to persons from other parts of the world who
  may look very different.

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GENES AND MEDICINE I

• Pääbo says that humanity can benefit from the
  identification of genes that are relevant to
  certain diseases in cases where people who carry
  such potentially harmful genes can modify their
  behavior to reduce the likelihood of contracting
  the disease to which the genes pertain.
• An example would be avoiding alcohol, or at least
  restricting intake, in cases where there is a
  genetic basis for alcoholism.

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GENES AND MEDICINE II

• Pääbo thinks that there is also the risk of what
  he calls genetic hypochondria where someone, in
  learning that she has a gene that carries a risk
  of a certain disease, lives her life in fear of
  getting the disease, but the feared disease never
  arrives.
• The increased medical predictive power that
  knowledge of genes can provide also represents a
  societal challenge in terms of medical insurance,
  especially in countries that, unlike most Western
  European countries, are not blessed with health
  insurance systems that share risks in an
  equitable fashion among the whole population.

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GENETIC TESTING AND INSURANCE

• Pääbo says that, in countries where health risks
  are not equally shared amongst the population
  Legislators in such countries would be wise to
  act now to counteract future temptations to
  personalize insurance risks.
• What he fears is that people not at genetic risk
  of coming down with a certain disease or
  condition would be covered while those at risk
  would not.
• Later on, once powerful genetic diagnostic tests
  are in place, it will be hard to withstand
  pressure from the insurance lobby to prevent such
  legislation.

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GENES AND HUMANITY I

• Pääbo fears that the media interest in the human
  genome project will result in an almost
  completely genetic view of ourselves.
• However, Pääbo says that the genome the genetic
  material of an organism is but an internal
  scaffold of our existence.
• Because of the emphasis in medicine today on the
  importance of genes, Pääbo thinks that there is a
  need to stress the relevance to disease of
  behavior, personality, and the environment.

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GENES AND HUMANITY II

• Pääbo We need to leave behind the view that the
  genetic history of our species is the history par
  excellence.
• Genes are but one aspect of our history, and
  there are other histories that are even more
  important. - such as the history of culture, or
  the connection that many in the West have to
  ancient Greece.

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GENES AND HUMANITY III

• Pääbo It is a delusion to think that genomics
  in isolation will ever tell us what it means to
  be human.
• To work toward that lofty goal of what it means
  to be human, we need an approach that includes
  the cognitive sciences, primatology, the social
  sciences, and the humanities.
• Nevertheless, genetics is important, and is in a
  prime position to play a prominent part in
  determining what it means to be human.