The Improvement of Man

"The most striking advance in the biological sciences in this century has been the cracking of the genetic code." After that ringing statement, Pediatrician Robert E. Cooke's address at the 75th anniversary celebration of Baltimore's prestigious Johns Hopkins Hospital took on a different tone: "The application of these findings to man's improvement has resulted in a negative contribution." No man could have been more anxious to see hope of positive gain in the genetic findings. Dr. Cooke, 43, has two children handicapped by mental retardation, some forms of which are now known to be linked with genetic abnormalities.

Dr. Cooke explained his down-to-earth conclusion simply: "The genetic message is an assembly of so many small pieces that improvement by planned rearrangement seems virtually impossible." Yet he was not altogether pessimistic. Genetics, he suggested, can play a useful role, "not as the primary modifier of men," but as one of the many branches of scientific research which together will find ways to recognize those victims of genetic misfortune who can be most helped by special care. Already, Dr. Cooke notes, it has been shown that some victims of mongolism can attain I.Q.s as high as 80.

The main feature of the Hopkins' anniversary celebration was the dedication of a new $15 million Children's Medical and Surgical Center, with Dr. Cooke as pediatrician-in-chief. Thus he added: "I speak not of the achievements of men, but of the contributions of the child to man and of higher horizons to be attained thereby."

The fact that human young are born more helpless than those of most animals, and remain dependent longer than any others, is sometimes seen as a disadvantage. Not so, said Dr. Cooke: "The greatest single advantage that the species Homo sapiens possesses is to be born immature and to remain immature for a long time." It is this, he declared, that creates the opportunity for the improvement of man. He suggested that it is not so important to know how much intelligence is determined by inheritance and how much it is affected by environment, as to know how each of these factors affects it. Some day, he concluded hopefully, man can learn to make "a considerable increase in his intellectual performance."

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