What happens when universal truth comes face-to-face with inexorable progress? Since the advent of life, every creature has been beholden to its genetic blueprint; drawn at conception, it is Article I of an immutable compact with the laws of nature. But mankind has never fully bought into that covenant, and human history is woven out of our perpetual attempts to renegotiate. The latest manifestations of this timeless quest are major developments in DNA science and technology. These quantum leaps have positioned mankind before an almost inconceivable array of opportunities-and with them a daunt.