With nearly 200 votes in, our poll on whether sex should be considered a form of genetic modification reflects a big divide. The two most polar answers of “definitely yes” and “definitely not” are almost equal, but “yes” is a bit ahead. In the “probably” category of responses, the “yes” answers lead over “not” by …
In Sex As Genetic Modification Poll, Divide but Lean to “Yes” Read More »
Is sex a form of genetic modification? A fairly common argument out there is that human decisions about mates and then their actual sexual reproduction are forms of human genetic modification. Sex is also sometimes equated with genetic modification of organisms by a few scientists. What do you think? Are these things equivalent? Similar? Not …
Poll: Is sex a form of human genetic modification? Read More »
Flying out of Portland Airport yesterday, I saw these magazines side by side: Trump and genetic modification of humans. Hmmm. That’s a humorous juxtaposition and the two covers are oddly similar in design. It go me thinking… Could using germline human genetic modification be a wise thing to do in some cases? After all, humanity …
Trump makes case for germline human genetic modification? Read More »
Below is a conversation with bioethics commentator Kelly Hills (who BTW has a great blog), tackling some of the key issues surrounding the potential use of CRISPR-Cas9 technology to make heritable human genetic modification. I really appreciate her clear and insightful answers to some tough questions that many are grappling with today on this topic. Part …
Kelly Hills interview: human genetic modification & bioethics Read More »
A lot has happened in the week since the first human embryo genetic modification paper was published by a team led by Junjiu Huang. There have been a number of new events just in the last few days. Jocelyn Kaiser over at SCIENCEINSIDER has a new piece reporting a couple important developments including that the journal …
News bites & rumors on human embryo genetic modification Read More »
Last week was a big one for the life sciences in that we saw the milestone of the first ever published paper reporting human embryo genetic modification (see here and here). It was one of those situations where we knew it was coming, but it was still a jolt. Not surprisingly this event sparked intense discussion …
4 areas of debate on 1st human embryo genetic modification paper Read More »
The paper that came out Wednesday from a research group in China reporting the first genetic modification of human embryos has sparked a lot of discussion. Some concerns about this paper have surfaced. 2-day review? The paper (HT to John Borghi) was in review only from March 30-April 1 — so at most 48 hours. Really? That certainly …
Concerns surface on Chinese paper on genetic modification of human embryos Read More »
Over at Practical Ethics they are calling for an almost Spock-like, emotion-free, and logical approach to the topic of heritable human genetic modification. Sounds good in principle, right? Well, unfortunately it fails in execution in their essay. The authors of “Editing the germline – a time for reason, not emotion” seem to include Chris Gyngell, Tom …
Discussion of concerns over heritable human genetic modification has spiked in 2015. This dialogue is a good thing, but is it in a sense too late? Are genetically modified (GM) people a foregone conclusion? Rumors are swirling that upwards of four papers reporting production of GM human embryos are in various stages of review at high-profile …
This guest piece on Human Germline Genetic Modification is by Lisa C. Ikemoto, Professor, U.C. Davis School of Law. I have been following the reports about genetic editing technology with concern. The fact that some scientists are calling for moratoria on gene editing of human embryos heartens me. Frankly, I had little confidence that any …
Lisa Ikemoto on Human Germline Genetic Modification Read More »