The New Ethical Frontier: DIY Eugenics

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...