AMONG the hottest health issues of the day are the ethics of tinkering with human genes and the controversial subject of alternative medicine. These will be discussed in Dublin this week and next by eminent doctors. Professor Michael Baum, an Irish American surgeon with a special interest in breast cancer, will give a talk on Quack Cancer Cures or Scientific Remedies at the Davis Theatre, Arts Building, TCD, on Friday at 5.30pm. The following Thursday, April 18th at 7.30 p.m. at the Joly Theatre, Hamilton Building, TCD, the Dublin University Genetical Society will host a seminar on Ethical Questions in Medical Genetics with Professor Michael Conneally of Indiana University. Professor Conneally discovered the gene for Huntington's Disease and is well versed in the issues of whether people should be told that they will develop certain inherited disorders and, if so, whether their insurance companies are entitled to this information.