The New Ethical Frontier: DIY Eugenics
By Michael Cook,
MercatorNet
| 05. 21. 2015
Untitled Document
The single most controversial development in biology in 2015 is a relatively cheap, easily manipulated technology for modifying the human genome.
Called Crispr, this tool allows scientists to “edit” the genome by deleting or adding DNA sequences. In just a couple of years, frenetic activity in labs around the world has taught scientists how to target and activate or silence specific genes. The implications for plant, animal and human biology are immense. For humans, Crispr opens up an panorama of dramatic cures and even enhancing the human genome.
But it is also quite troubling. Gene editing with Crispr only got started in 2013, but within two years position papers on ethical issues were already starting to flow.
Tinkering with the human germline has been off-limits for decades even if the mind-boggling experiments basically took place in the realm of science fiction. Since the 1970s there has been a consensus that scientists should not “play God” by creating “designer babies”. This was been codified in UNESCO’s 1997 Universal Declaration on the Human Genome and Human Rights, which implies...
Related Articles
By Mackenzie Mays, Los Angeles Times | 10.29.2024
SACRAMENTO — Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill on Sunday that requires large health insurance companies to cover in vitro fertilization — a win for reproductive health advocates amid nationwide concerns about the future of access to fertility treatments.
The bill also...
Reproductive rights have been a flashpoint in national politics for decades, with the stakes surging after the Supreme Court shredded the right to an abortion. In the current presidential campaign, the battle over abortion has swelled and morphed to encompass in vitro fertilization (IVF), which has now moved rapidly from widely accepted to partisan hot button.
This dramatic shift was highlighted by the February decision of the Alabama Supreme Court that granted personhood rights to frozen IVF embryos, signaling that...
By Deirdre Walsh , NPR | 09.17.2024
Senate Republicans blocked a Democratic bill to provide a nationwide right to IVF treatments. It was the second time Senate Democrats tried and failed to advance the measure.
Reproductive freedom has remained a central issue in several Senate contests that...
By Matthew Rozsa, Salon | 09.15.2024
When a person with a uterus decides to freeze their eggs, any number of things can go wrong. Ice crystal can form, killing an otherwise viable ovum. A fertilized egg may fail to properly implant, or the egg may...