Human Genome Project: The Role and Responsibility of Human Beings Today

 Human Genome Project unfolds our collective iden­-
tity as humankind. We progressively seem to acquire more
power and greater responsibility. Our collective identity re­
minds us that all our actions have a profound effect on the
environment and on virtually all forms of life. We become
stewards of our own Genome and this calls us for greater
responsibility. With the discovery of the nature of DNA and
the genetic code, a new previously unknown world was opened
up that lies within each of us; within the cells of all other
living creatures. Insights into all that was considered to be
human nature, from disease possibilities to dispositions were
poised to enter humankind’s collective consciousness. Our
explorations of the then unknown world which now have ini­
tiated unfolding in and through Genetic Revolution impels
us to delve into the anthropic implications of the genome
mapping and of the project of being human.
In the middle of the 20th century, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
viewed human beings as “Evolution become conscious of it­
self.” Today in the beginning of the 21st century we can well
broaden this understanding as “Evolution become capable of
consciously extending or eliminating itself.” So too in the re­
flections ahead, the author probes into the shift that has taken 
place in our understanding of Human beings as co-creators;
Human understanding of God; Human longing for fulfilment;
Humans as being at-home in the universe; human capability
to affirm life; human urgency to make choices as well as hu­
man vocation as trailblazers of self-extinction or self-exten­-
sion.

After focussing on the unique role and responsibility of hu­
mans in the universe of life, the author says that it is the task 
of the present humanity has to make constant and respon­-
sible choices collectively to determine our destiny -  to extend 
or to extinct. In this sense today’s human beings are the train-
blazers for the whole of life. We have reached the level of con­
sciousness that other living beings can hope for. Either we
can foster the evolution in all living creatures or we can wipe
out evolution and consequently life itself from earth.