'Study upon study upon study has been coming out proclaiming a newly discovered gene that causes (fill in the blank) disease. Women who've been informed that they carry the breast cancer gene rush to have double mastectomies to prevent cancer. Since the genome project was started, we've been inundated with news stories about potential cures for diseases based on our genetic heritage, and we've been convinced that our genes are our fate. If we believe that, then we believe that we have absolutely no options in our destiny—and that is utter nonsense.
The traditional understanding of genes is that they're the primary inheritable information—the basic units of what defines us. If you're convinced that's all we are—bits of protoplasm born into the world with predestined traits that determine our physical and mental makeup, carrying us to a predetermined end—then you're accepting a concept that's designed to push you into taking drugs and having medical procedures, because that theory assumes that there's no choice in what happens to you.'
