The Little Brown Reader

Does genetic engineering void "all men are created equal?"

Reason's Ronald Bailey examines whether progress in genetic engineering is a threat to the premise that "all men are created equal".

Created Equal?
Independence Day 2003
June 20, 2003

Ronald Bailey

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal" is one of the most evocative and profound claims made in the Declaration of Independence of the United States 227 years ago. Now some policy intellectuals are claiming that this self-evident truth is imperiled by the prospect of human genetic engineering that could shatter human equality as some citizens take advantage of the new technologies while others do not. "The political equality enshrined in the Declaration of Independence can't withstand the destruction of the idea that humans are in fact equal," claims environmental writer Bill McKibben in his new anti-progress book, Enough: Staying Human in an Engineered Age.

But hold on. Are humans "in fact equal"? After all, we look around and see that there is nothing at all self-evident about physical human equality or equality of status; some people are short, some tall, some fat, others thin, some strong, others weak, some poor, others rich, some brilliant and others dim....

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