By Jon Turney. 276 pp., illustrated. New Haven, Conn., Yale University Press, 1998. $30. ISBN 0-300-07417-4.
On June 7, 1998, after a seesaw battle on television and inthe press, Swiss voters rejected a referendum that would haveseverely limited research in genetic engineering. The debatefeatured arguments about man-made monstrosities and the ethicalpropriety of creating new forms of life. These objections tomanipulating the stuff of life are not new: they go back toPrometheus, who made men from clay, and the medieval golem,a clay giant that was magically endowed with life. Nevertheless,the Swiss referendum is notable because it showed that at theend of the 20th century, ancient myths about science . . . [Full Text of this Article]
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