Bespoke treatments.

Some 10 years ago Bill Clinton and Tony Blair announced to the waiting world that scientists had managed to decipher the book of life. To mark the anniversary the completion of the first draft of the genome programme researches claim that they will be able to bring the health benefits eventually to everyone. They say that hidden within our DNA are the secrets that will teach us how to live a healthy life. Geneticists have discovered that the malfunctioning genes that cause major illnesses carry a distinctive signature that can reveal the causes of the malfunction in the first place. So one fine day we may have bespoke treatments-targeting specific illnesses. But as epidemiologists tell us-we already know the greatest causal factors in longevity is class and where you happen to live. So life style is an important issue. As one of the leading geneticists Professor Steve Jones at University College has said "the more we are learning about our individual genetics, the more we should be concerned about the environment we place our selves in, perhaps genetics is going to focus our attention increasingly on behaving in a sensible way". On the news today the financial planners for the Church of England are reconsidering there policy in investing in BP in the light of the environmental catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico. Perhaps more and more financial institutions will think pragmatically and astutely about there ethical practices. We reap what we sow!