# The Prospect for Designed Genetic Change **Entity class:** Publication / historical scientific essay **Author:** [[wiki/Robert L. Sinsheimer|Robert L. Sinsheimer]] **Publication:** *American Scientist* 57(1), Spring 1969, pp. 134–142 **Parallel version:** *Engineering and Science* 32(7), April 1969, pp. 8–13, titled “The Prospect **of** Designed Genetic Change” ## Definition Sinsheimer's essay argued that emerging molecular genetics made deliberate alteration of human inheritance newly imaginable. It compared an older social program of selective breeding with a proposed, technically different form of genetic intervention and explicitly asked who should choose the qualities being sought. Its formulations are historically important even where their predictions and normative assumptions remain unsettled. ## Provenance distinction The [Caltech Library record for the *American Scientist* version](https://authors.library.caltech.edu/records/17a7j-rka34) gives the title with **for** and confirms its 1969 journal citation. The [full-text Caltech *Engineering and Science* version](https://calteches.library.caltech.edu/2718/) gives the title with **of** and supports the complete wording of the excerpts below. Those are parallel publication records, not an excuse to silently combine their bibliographic titles or modernize the historical terminology. ## Relationships - **Authorship:** [[wiki/Robert L. Sinsheimer|Robert L. Sinsheimer]] wrote both 1969 versions. - **Conceptual contrast:** [[wiki/Eugenics|Eugenics]] is the historical social program the essay contrasts with future individual intervention; [[wiki/Embryo Selection|Embryo Selection]] is a distinct later technique and should not be projected backward as a 1969 demonstrated result. - **Evolutionary route:** [[wiki/Evolutionary Theory|Evolutionary Theory]] contextualizes Sinsheimer's claim about a species able to direct its future. - **Article route:** [[articles/We Were Never Going to Make It|We Were Never Going to Make It]] develops the broader evolutionary question; [[collections/Simple Reminders|Simple Reminders]] indexes the sourced quotations. ## Simple Reminders, Quotations, and Thoughts > “For the first time in all time a living creature understands its origin and can undertake to design its future.” > **— Robert L. Sinsheimer**, *1969, “The Prospect for Designed Genetic Change”* [[reminders/Evolution/Humanity Can Understand Its Origin and Design Its Future by Robert L. Sinsheimer|Humanity Can Understand Its Origin and Design Its Future by Robert L. Sinsheimer]] > “In contrast, the new eugenics could, at least in principle, be implemented on a quite individual basis, in one generation, and subject to no existing social restrictions.” > **— Robert L. Sinsheimer**, *1969, “The Prospect of Designed Genetic Change,” Engineering and Science* [[reminders/Selection/Genetic Design Could Move from State Programs to Individual Decisions by Robert L. Sinsheimer|Genetic Design Could Move from State Programs to Individual Decisions by Robert L. Sinsheimer]] > “The horizons of the new eugenics are in principle boundless—for we should have the potential to create new genes and new qualities yet undreamed. But of course the ethical dilemma remains. What are the best qualities, and who shall choose?” > **— Robert L. Sinsheimer**, *1969, “The Prospect of Designed Genetic Change,” Engineering and Science* [[reminders/Selection/Who Chooses the Qualities of Future Humans by Robert L. Sinsheimer|Who Chooses the Qualities of Future Humans by Robert L. Sinsheimer]] Sinsheimer contrasts older selection rhetoric with his proposed gene-level intervention; the historical terms are his. > "The old eugenics would have required a continual selection for breeding of the fit, and a culling of the unfit. The new eugenics would permit in principle the conversion of all of the unfit to the highest genetic level." > **— Robert L. Sinsheimer**, *1969, “The Prospect for Designed Genetic Change”* [[reminders/Selection/The New Eugenics Would Convert Rather Than Cull by Robert L. Sinsheimer|The New Eugenics Would Convert Rather Than Cull by Robert L. Sinsheimer]] Sinsheimer urges preparation for genetic interventions he says were not yet in hand. > "The larger and the deeper challenges—those concerned with the defined genetic improvement of man—perhaps fortunately are not yet in our grasp, but they are etched clear upon the horizon. We should begin to prepare now for their reality." > **— Robert L. Sinsheimer**, *1969, “The Prospect for Designed Genetic Change”* [[reminders/Selection/Genetic Improvement Was Clear on the Horizon by Robert L. Sinsheimer|Genetic Improvement Was Clear on the Horizon by Robert L. Sinsheimer]]