Question

Read the excerpt below from the introduction to the book Access to the Genome: The Challenge to Equality and answer the questions that follow.


As genetic technology and other technologies relevant to human biology are developed, society will face a host of complex ethical, legal, and social issues. One of the most complex sets of issues involves our choices over who will have access to these technologies. . . . If, indeed, diseases can be cured or prevented, and if embryos can be selected or enhanced, but the technologies are not available for all to have [due to affordability], how will our society respond? What does justice require, and what will political realities permit?

The issues surrounding how to distribute access to new genetic technologies are the focus of this book. These questions and problems are not new—we struggle now with the fair allocation of vital health care resources in a society marked by great discrepancies in wealth. But genetic technologies will dramatically up the ante as the menu of powerful possibilites expands. With the possible exception of slavery, these technologies represent the most profound challege to cherished notions of social equality ever encountered. Decisions over who will have access to what genetic technologies will likely determine the kind of society and political system that will prevail in the future.

Before discussing the social and moral issues raised by these questions, we will first provide some background information on the genetic revolution itself. In the next chapter, we describe the massive effort to decode the human genetic recipe. In Chapter Three, we describe the technologies that this effort is likely to produce and the potential benefits that they will provide. Then we will embark on a discussion of the social and ethical problems that these technologies pose and, finally, discuss potential solutions. (Mehlman 6)

Mehlman, Maxwell J. Access to the Genome: The Challenge to Equality. Washington, DC: Georgetown U Press, 1998. Print.



Is this a primary or secondary source? Would the information covered in this book be more relevant as a primary source or secondary source?

Answer 1

1. The passage given above is A PRIMARY SOURCE.
In academic writing, sources refers to the materials from which the author gather his ideas and information. A primary source is a source that provides first hand information, they are original documents. A secondary source is a document that draw his information and ideas from a primary source. In the passage given above, you will notice that the author use a reference in this work, this mean that, the work is a secondary source that is drawing from that reference, which is a primary source. 
2. The information covered in this book will be more relevant as a secondary source. This is because, the work draws from a lot of primary sources and combine the ideas gathered into one. The write up is not presenting a new work but draws from different works of other authors.