Knowledgeable observers suggest that, just as physics shaped the twentieth century for both good (space flight) and ill (atomic bombs), so biology will shape the twenty-first century. As with physics in the 1920s, we in the 2020s literally cannot envision the impacts of biological innovation over the next decades. But we can confidently predict that some impacts will benefit, and some will harm, humankind or parts of it. We can also predict that people will vary as to whether a given impact is beneficial or harmful. Genomic Politics maps the transformation now being created by three components of this biological revolution, all in genomic science: individual ancestry testing, use of DNA in the criminal justice system to help determine guilt or innocence, and medical use to understand, prescribe for, and eventually eliminate human genetic diseases.Unlike most non-biologists who write about genomics, I do not seek to persuade readers that social uses of genomics will help or hurt them. My goal lies at a more “meta”-level – to explain how people come to different views of genomics’ innovations, why people hold one or another view, and what the societal and policy consequences will be of accepting one or another stance. (I reserve my own view for the end of the book, and even there I tread lightly.)

Genomic Politics explores four stances toward each of the three genomics innovations. Enthusiasts believe genetic influence on human phenotypes to be strong (though few are determinists), and they believe that genomic science is overall a force for good. They are, paradigmatically, genomic scientists. Skeptics also perceive genetic influence on human phenotypes to be strong, but in contrast to Enthusiasts, they believe that genomic science may generate more harm than good. They are, perhaps, fatalists. The Hopeful and Rejectors both perceive genetic influence on human phenotypes to be weak; the Hopeful see that fact as an invitation to social activism in order to solve social problems, while Rejectors proclaim a pox on both the houses of genomic science and social activism. Using this simple typology, I investigate how occupants of each cell encourage or contest genomics’ use in, respectively, self-understanding, the courts, and health care. I examine how experts, public officials, the general public, and specific groups (e.g. African Americans, police, or disability advocates) use or castigate genomics, and how all of this might develop. I also discuss the concrete policies and practices in each of the three arenas, and conclude by explaining why I am a cautious Enthusiast.