LETTER TO THE BOOKSHELF
A letter regarding Robert Dorit's review of Building Genetic Medicine
February 4, 2008
There is a tendency in my country, the United Kingdom, to regard anyone for whom English is the mother tongue as an honorary Briton. On occasion something emerges which serves to remind us that Britons and Americans are in fact citizens of very different nations, nations underlain by deep philosophies that can be distinctly different. The book Building Genetic Medicine, by Shobita Parthasarathy, reviewed by Robert L. Dorit in the January–February 2008 issue of American Scientist ("Brave New Worlds"), seems starkly, even brutally, to remind us of such difference.
Put simply—perhaps over simply—the prevailing expectation in this country, and indeed in Europe generally, is that discoveries should be used, where they can be, for the general good. In contrast, the prevailing view in your country seems to be that such discoveries are there to be exploited for the sole benefit of the wealthy individuals who control anonymous corporations.
Our National Health Service is not without its faults and its critics, nor are the systems in place in the countries that are our European neighbors. But looking on from this side of the Atlantic, we do not understand why the wealthiest and most volubly Christian nation in the world chooses not to ensure health care for so many of its citizens. I hope that the book—and if not the book, then Professor Dorit’s review of it—will be widely read.
H. Bennett
Chartered Engineer, B.A., M.Sc., M.I.E.T., M.R.Ae.S. (Retired)
Stourbridge
England
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