Re-Engineering Human Embryos
By Tom Ashbrook,
On Point
| 04. 28. 2015
[With CGS's Marcy Darnovsky]
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New report out of China, with potential implications for the rest of human history. Human nature. Chinese scientists have used a new technique to “edit” the genes of human embryos. To snip and change the code. The recipe for human life itself. What gets inherited. They’re not perfect editors yet. But if and when they get it down, those edits will re-engineer human life. Maybe against disease. And for all kinds of traits. They’re searching for “genius genes.” Stronger. Faster. This hour on On Point: re-engineering human embryo genes. The implications, and the global moral debate.
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Guests
Carl Zimmer, science writer and columnist at the New York Times. Author of the books “Soul Made Flesh,” “Evolution” and “At The Water’s Edge,” among many others. (@carlzimmer)
Craig Mello, Nobel Prize-winning professor of molecular medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.
Marcy Darnovsky, executive director of the Center for Genetics and Society.
Image via Earth Times
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