ANN ARBOR, MICH.--The community-wide Ann Arbor Reads project has made "Abraham Lincoln's DNA and Other Adventures in Genetics" the area's best-selling non-fiction title. Throughout town and across campus, groups are forming to read and discuss the coming age of genetic technology and the difficult ethical questions it will spawn. The School of Public Health group's next meeting is March 4 at noon in the Faculty Lounge of SPH I; all interested persons are invited for a discussion focusing mainly on the final two sections of the book.

"Just getting people together to talk about these issues is a great goal," says Aaron Goldenberg, MPH '02, of the Life Sciences Values and Society Program, which is coordinating the read with the Ann Arbor District Library.

Established reading groups in town are taking up the book, as are newly formed groups in churches and synagogues and several units at the University of Michigan. Workers at Pfizer's Global Research and Development facility on Huron Parkway also are being encouraged to join discussion groups at work. All will discuss such topics such as cloning replacement pets and humans, growing animals for human organ transplants, genes and behavior, genetic privacy, and genetic testing.

Author Philip R. Reilly helped created study questions for the book and will make several appearances in Ann Arbor during the program. Reilly is a physician and a lawyer and the CEO of a major biotechnology firm in Waltham, Mass.

The book was chosen for its comprehensive overview of the life sciences revolution now underway, as well as for being accessible to a variety of readers and touching on the social and ethical implications of the science, Goldenberg says. Similar community reads have occurred in more than 100 places around the country in recent years, but Ann Arbor seems to be the first to have chosen a non-fiction title, he says.

Information about public lectures, exhibits, and discussions in conjunction with Ann Arbor Reads can be found at http://www.aareads.org. Copies of the book are available in area bookstores and are on reserve loan at PHISA at the School of Public Health. 

For more information: Susan Metosky at smetosky@umich.edu, (734) 647-8304;
or Mary Beth Lewis at lewismb@umich.edu.

© 2003 The Regents of the University of Michigan
Updated April 28, 2003