Genes Are Not Fate

by Heidi Stevenson

17 August 2009

From the Discover Magazine Tattoo Gallery

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 stop reading here, as there's no point in continuing.

On a weekly basis, newspaper articles exhort us with stories about how the gene for this horrible disease or that horrible disease has been discovered, with the promise that the disease will finally be conquered. Here are some recent examples:

• Breast cancer gene⁽¹⁾
• Dilated cardiomyopathy gene⁽²⁾
As with everything modern medicine touches, gene identification becomes first and foremost a money sink, a place where common sense and humanity are banned.
• Alzheimer's gene⁽³⁾
• Age-related cataract gene⁽⁴⁾
• Human fertility gene⁽⁵⁾
• Tooth enamel gene⁽⁶⁾
• Premature ejaculation gene⁽⁷⁾
• New cancer gene⁽⁸⁾
• Fat gene⁽⁹⁾
• Insulin resistance gene⁽¹⁰⁾
• Prostate cancer gene⁽¹¹⁾
• Popularity gene⁽¹²⁾

The things they don't tell us, though, are far more interesting and important. Like the breast cancer gene is responsible for only 5-10% of all breast cancers, and having it does not mean you're fated to get the disease. Like the fact that a gene must become active before it has any effects. Or the likelihood of being ostracized for carrying a particular gene—perhaps limiting one's ability to find employment or even a date. Or that these genes are getting patented and corporations are taking ownership of them, so that they, and only they, can do anything with them and so that you no longer have the sole right to parts of your very essence.

All of this focus on the wonders of the genome has its good points, but with the usual proclivity of modern medicine to take ownership of anything involving health, the result will likely further erode our rights to the essence of ourselves and further convince us that we are helpless, that the only way to health is by accepting treatments and drugs from doctors.

The reality is that genes are only the beginning of who we are. They don't define inevitability. And their nonexistence doesn't mean that we're immune from a condition. Eat badly enough, take all the steroids your doctor gives you, and the likelihood of becoming diabetic is very high. Eat well from a young age, and no fat gene is going to cause you any problems—but eat badly from an early age and go on the latest diet fad, and your odds of becoming fat are huge with or without the fat gene.

As with everything modern medicine touches, gene identification becomes first and foremost a money sink, a place where common sense and humanity are banned. We're stripped of ownership of that part of us, and then indoctrinated to bow at the temple of the quick medical fix. The gene becomes an icon, an image for surrendering up our very essence, handing over the means to care for ourselves. It's used as a tool to convince us to give unto the medical powers whatever they wish. Our genes become the sacrifices we make to the temple of medical profits.

Our genes are not our fate—unless we surrender them.

On the other hand, if a greed gene is found, I'm sure it'll be firmly attached to the grasping hands of Big Pharma, Big Agri, and Big Medicine.

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