My new book GMO Sapiens just recently came out. You can see a few reviews of it here and you can order it here.
It’s an approachable, quick read on the unsettling, but exciting topic of using CRISPR gene editing technology to make a new kind of people.
Here’s an excerpt from the book (publisher: World Scientific Publishing Company), where I’m discussing the possibility that human genetic modification via CRISPR could become popular and an unstoppable trend:
The reality is that we just do not know how this trend could develop
or if it would be reversible. In only a few decades, for example, we went
from IVF baby #1 Louise Brown to over five million IVF babies. That is
a good thing and much joy has come out of that technological innovation,
but it also serves to highlight how quickly such changes can unfold. If in
coming years we witness the birth of GMO sapiens baby #1 made via
CRISPR, within a few decades it is conceivable that millions of GM
humans could be born, particularly if some genetic modifications become
seen as giving children an advantage or are considered to be fashionable.
Keep in mind as well that the number of GMO sapiens would multiply
as the changes are inherited by each new generation of children.
One of these new GM people could be your child, grandchild, niece, nephew, sibling, friend, etc. In short, for better or worse if genetically modified people are made, it could easily be a development that personally affects us all.