MUMBAI, November 24: Nobel Laureate Dr James D Watson opines that women's problems and rights have to be given topmost priority while formulating the ethics and other codes of applied genetics. ``After all, women are the ones who perpetuate humanity and play a greater role than men in the bringing up of a child,'' he said.If a child is born in this world with physical or mental deformity it's the mother who suffers the most, he said. Hence they have the right to decide whether they want a healthy or unhealthy child. While admitting that genetics could be put to dangerous use, he said genetics is the hope for the human species. ``I believe that genetics will help in the progress and upliftment of our species,'' he said.Addressing a jam-packed audience, comprising mostly students, at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) today, Dr Watson dwelt upon various issues that will arise when the Human Genome Project sees the light of the day. The project, which Watson headed till 1992, is an attempt to study what makes up man; the complete sequencing of the human genome - cracking down the intricate secrets of the genetic blueprint.Watson's talk was punctuated with wit and humour. Though he is enthused about the solutions it would offer for human malaise, he has raised some genuine fears about its probable abuse. Once the human genome is sequenced, the entire history, and to a certain extent, even the minds of individuals can be probed, which will deprive humanity of the privacy it has been enjoying for millenniums. Genetic eavesdropping and policing will destroy many exclusive privileges of human beings.Watson recollected the black days where genetics was misused by dictators. Known as eugenics in the early days, it was used by the Nazis to selectively exterminate Jews, pygmies and other races whom they regarded as inferior. Dr Watson also humourously explained how the science of eugenics flouts even the logic of inquiry. ``The early science showed the arrangement of chromosomes in Whites as a regular pattern and in Negroes as a highly irregular pattern,'' he said.The discovery of the genetic material by him and Francis Crick disproved all this and ended the racist approach in scientific inquiry. Watson didn't subscribe to the idea that everything can solely be attributed to genes. ``If a person has frequent mood changes and behaves in an awkward way, the answer might also lie in the neurological part of the individual. Genes can only tell how individuals are disposed to various problems as a result of a deformed gene,'' he said. Watson sees a hope for mental patients in genetic research, which may zero down on the bad genes responsible for such behaviour.Watson said he never expected that the discovery of double helix would bring about such a revolution. ``When we discovered the double helix structure, nobody knew how it would be useful. Now looking at the incident after forty years it gives a thrilling sensation. Then we never thought of any immediate commercial application.'' He said choices of genetic engineering should be left to the individual. He further said there can be legislation only for its general abuse and not for individuals' preferences.
