Questioning 'the Number of the Beast': Constructions of Humanness in a Human Genome Project (HGP) Narrative

摘要

The meaning of humanness, what it means to be human, is a continually rehearsed issue in science, literature, folktales and fiction. Indeed, contemporary media-scientific commentaries exemplify the pervasiveness of this question. It is as if public and scientific attention to the 'new genetics' of the late twentieth century has brought new life to this ancient puzzle. A recurrent issue, related to the question of what it means to be human, is that of the nature of genes. If the gene is conceptualized as essential to human (and non-human) life, then the matter of how many there are, of course, becomes an important issue. Central to the notion of gene number importance, is the dogma of early molecular biology: DNA makes RNA, RNA makes protein, and proteins make us, and the subsequent one gene-one protein model of explanation (Kay, 1993). Even though geneticists today consider the dogma outdated, the gene number issue has remained an ubiquitous constant in popular and expert discourse. In this paper, I will deal with the shift of focus in constructing humanness produced within the context of the Human Genome Project (HGP): how accounts of comparisons between human and non-human gene numbers, as well as assertions of similarities and differences in percentage, were replaced by a concern for the human specific function and the complexity of genes/genomes. Accompanying this shift is the notion of our superior place in nature: if we are portrayed and constructed as intimately connected to non-humans, then reformulations of species boundaries are urgent.