Editorial June 2, 1997 Issue

The boundaries of biotech

Mary Metzner Trammell

It was the soft bleating of Scottish lamb named Dolly that heralded worldwide what's being called "The Biotech Century." After all, many people said, if scientists can clone a genetically identical copy of an adult sheep, they can do anything. They can manipulate life itself. They can wipe out deadly bacteria and diseases. They can eradicate environmental pollution. They can "transform not just science but the world of the next century"!^{Naomi Freundlich, "The Biotech Century," Business Week, March 10, 1997 .}

Of course, enormous possibilities do exist today for improving the human condition through technology. And researchers should vigorously pursue these possibilities. But, as many qualified observers point out, there are—and always will be—limits to what the physical sciences can accomplish. Because physicality isn't all there is to life.

A high-school football quarterback in Lynn, Massachusetts—Stephen Fiste—knows this from experience. Last October, Fiste suffered a head and spinal concussion on the football field. He couldn't move and had no feeling in his limbs. As an ambulance rushed him to the hospital, he wondered if he'd ever walk again.

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