This book is about the confluence of two developments which assumed significance during the 1990s in most rich market economies on both sides of the Atlantic. Unexpected consequences followed the combination of the two tendencies, and they led to a set of political decisions which, on closer scrutiny, appear to be neither well founded nor sustainable.

The first development is the remarkable progress made in genetics during the 1990s and the promise of even greater potential gains in the not-too-distant future. In the 1990s it became possible to identify the relationship between defective genes and a set of serious illnesses. This insight strengthened the incentives to develop genetic testing which could potentially anticipate many more illnesses, as well as therapies to reduce the risk of the illnesseses breaking out or to provide remedies once they have done so. The number of illnesses that can be prognosticated or diagnosed with the help of genetics is steadily growing. In consequence, genetic insights become increasingly more valuable as instruments for assessing the risk of illness as well as longevity. In a somewhat longer time perspective, there are clear possibilities for the use of genetics to reduce the outbreak of illnesses with genetic origin, and to limit the risk of such illnesses. In an even longer perspective, this new branch of science appears to offer the potential to manipulate genes not only to avoid illness but to improve individual characteristics and qualities in various respects.