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The Possibilities of the Human Genome

Dr. Marianne Legato discusses the reality that we, as human beings, can now create life. We are tremendously powerful in terms of our scientific knowledge. We can clone human beings; that is absolutely going to come to pass. The defense department's scientfic arm, DARPA, is doing amazing kinds of investigation on preparing soldiers that don't bleed, who don't feel pain, who can consume enormous amounts of calories to sustain them during prolonged periods of activity. The special forces can't go more than 4-5 day in a physically demanding environment because they simply can't consume enough energy to sustain themselves. So if you look at what DARPA is doing, it's very daring, very amazing.

Dr. Legato hopes that our legal and ethical experts can keep up with what we can do scientifically. Often, we just hurdle ahead willy-nilly and try anything, because we can explore new frontiers. It's time to sit back and reflect a little on what this new power means to manipulate the genome.

Dr. Marianne J. Legato, MD, FACP, a specialist in Gender Specific Medicine, or Women's Medicine and Men's Medicine respectively. Dr. Legato is part of the Women's Heart Foundation, an international gathering of nurse executives, civic leaders, community health directors, member hospitals, partners, providers and corporate sponsors who want something done to fight women's heart disease. Dr. Legato promotes the inclusion of women in clinical trials of relevance to the health of both men and women. She furthers the study of biological differences in men and women, and how gender plays a role in the diagnosis and treatment of disease, all to benefit patients.

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