Fact: The Human Genome Project (HGP) was a grand international scientific research project, set to map out ALL the genes in the human beings and ultimately unravel the mystery of uniqueness of each individual . The teams were so dedicated and enthusiastic that the project scheduled to be completed in 2005 was finished a good two years ahead-in 2003! Knowing exactly what every single gene does opens a pandora box of possibilities and nightmares!
For more on HGP:
And now for the fiction....(Written in 2008) Happened to read something related today and hence dug this thought up...
THE GENE JOURNALS
G.J .Corporation was on the world’s top five companies within five years of its inception. The universal appeal of its product-the Gene Journal- had ensured that success.
Patenting the results of its Human Genome Project, the company began selling a complete map of an individual’s genes. In an unpretentious, bound book, all of an individual’s history and future lay demystified. It was the most scientific version of an astrological chart! The possibility of inheriting familial traits-from the mundane like the age of hair greying to the more relevant like the inheritance of diabetes, heart diseases, stroke and cancer were all documented in the gene map. Assessing the mental make-up of a person, predicting the maximum possible I.Q reachable, most likely life-partner, predilection to diseases, accident-proneness and emotional bias were but a few of the individualised information in the journal. Sex appeal, possible age of death, memory capacity and other hitherto ambiguous or immeasurable aspects were clearly charted.
G.J. Corp. knew that showing people their problems ensured they returned for solutions. Their gene-therapy units were only raring to go. Their zealous ongoing research came up with fantastic solutions daily-like enhancing intelligence, refining basic instincts, complete prevention of multifactorial diseases, weeding of ‘unnecessary’ traits and creating the perfect set of genes-to procure the perfect progeny! Designer genes and Superior race!
They were on the verge of a groundbreaking gene-therapy. They dreamt playing God by enhancing life spans! The brain behind this was their pioneer scientist Dr.Sumathi Shastry. She too, like most of her staff, possessed her Gene Journal. They knew everything there was to about themselves and some even volunteered for any kind of gene therapy.
Sumathi used her own sample to elute her genetic essence for life-span. She prepared her longevity vaccine-a guarantee for three extra decades! She had detailed the process of making individual-specific vaccine in her handwritten journal. Though under wraps, Sumathi’s Longevity vaccination was bound to be a historic event. She personally fixed the date for the 9th September.
Dr.Sumathi Shastry died on the 7th September due to a sudden illness. Try as much as they did, no one was ever able to recover her research journals that also contained many of the gene therapies that she had pioneered. There was speculation of homicide.
A startling revelation was in her Gene Journal. Her genetic graph there predicted that she would die on 7th September!
Why did she deliberately fix the date for after her death?
On 9th September, the chief of Gene-Journal Corporation received a snail-mail.
“The beauty of our lives lies in its unpredictability. To have a prolonged life of predictable turn of events seems an intolerable torture. If I continued to live forever, watching my friends, peers and relatives die around me, I would only end up in future, in an alien atmosphere, amongst alien humans. Death is a great deliverance, not an enemy waiting to be overcome. Spare humanity of a heinous future.”
The Gene Journals stopped. Human race lived on.
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