Fact~Fantasy~Fiction

Is the World Ready for This Technology?

Since 1990 when the Department of Energy and the National Institute of Health announced it’s HGP, Human Genome Project, a race to uncover the code to the human genetic sequence was launched and a scientific and technological explosion occurred. The formal announcement occurred October of 1990. Their goal was to discover the entire 30-35,000 human genes, and complete the sequence of the 3 billion DNA subunits.

Over the last 13 years, this technology has accelerated, culminating with the announcement of the completion of this sequencing. The announcement occurred April of 2003.

This milestone inevitably sparked an unprecedented barrage of research with profound potentials that challenged ethicists on the moral, legal, and social issues surrounding the implications of this discovery, namely, genomes, stem cell research, and cloning.

Monica Payton presents challenging questions as a premise in the novel Cloning.

Read an excerpt