James Watson Wants to Build a Better Human

Did you have a nice DNA Day? And how was your Human Genome Month?

If you missed those Congressionally-designated celebrations last month due to minor distractions, like a war or being laid off from your job, don't worry: The media missed the real story anyway.

Many of the newspaper, radio and television accounts of the 50th anniversary of the discovery of DNA's double helix, focused on the eccentric genius and baffling charm of co-discoverer James Watson. Meanwhile, largely unnoticed, Nobel laureate Watson, or "Honest Jim" as he likes to consider himself, celebrated in his own way: by continuing to aggressively advance his agenda for genetically re-engineering the human species -- even if that requires engaging in medical experimentation that puts lives at risk.

Some observers reflexively dismiss Watson's genetic prescriptions as the idiosyncratic ideas of a crank; wasn't that, they ask, the fellow who suggested a genetic linkage between skin color and sex drive? Or else ascribe them to Watson's desire to keep genetic research at the cutting edge. Yet while both of these hypotheses could be true, they miss the more important point: James Watson genuinely believes in a renewed eugenics, now scientifically accurate and technically powerful, and has laid out a logical, strategic framework for moving science and society in that direction.

Reviewing a recent biography of Watson, his former Harvard colleague Walter Gilbert tells the story of Watson mussing up his hair and untying his shoelaces before going into meetings with philanthropic donors. While we might still bemuse ourselves with Watson's performance as the absent-minded professor, we would also do well to keep a serious eye on his program for the human genetic sciences.

Gaining some insight into James Watson's genetic agenda is not really difficult -- all we need do is read his own words. The key requisite scientific notion to grasp is "inheritable genetic modification," most often referred to as "germline genetic engineering." When genetic therapy is attempted to cure the disease of an existing person, those genetic changes will affect only that person. But if genetic engineering is carried out on a sperm or an egg or an embryo, that genetic alteration will be present in every cell of that new person -- including their "germline," the sperm or egg cells which will then carry those modified genes forward into all future generations.

During the 1990s, after being forced out as director of the National Institutes of Health human genome research center, James Watson began explicitly advocating human germline engineering. His opening rhetorical move is to demystify, or some would say devalue, the existing human genome and the real humans that develop from them.

"I think it's complete nonsense ... saying we're sacred and should not be changed," Watson railed at a 1998 UCLA conference. "Evolution can be just damn cruel, and to say we've got a perfect genome and there's some sanctity? I'd like to know where that idea comes from because it's utter silliness ... To try to give it any more meaning than it deserves in some quasi-mystical way is for Steven Spielberg or somebody like that. It's just plain aura, up in the sky -- I mean, it's crap."

Watson then sought to pre-empt any scientific self-doubt: "We should be proud of what we're doing and not worry about destroying the genetic patrimony of the world, which is awfully cruel to too many people," he said. "We get a lot of pleasure from helping other people. That's what we're trying to do."

With the imperfect human genome cast as the cruel enemy and the scientist as the savior, one might assume that Watson is merely referring to curing genetic disorders. His recent public revelation of having a child of his own with a serious neurological disorder resulted in much of the media reporting that Watson's genetic engineering advocacy was motivated by this tragic personal experience. However much that may be the case, though, Watson doesn't stop at treating disease.