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Ethics of Human Gene Editing

For millennia people have tried to influence what we would now call the genetic qualities of the human species, but technological limitations have long stymied these attempts. In the last few years new technologies have been developed, like CRISPR, which are so precise that people are talking about the possibility of "editing" the genes of humans. But, if it can be done, should it be done? Some say we could rid the species of debilitating disease, and others say this will usher in a dystopian society where inequality is literally written into our bodies. In this talk John H. Evans, who has extensively studied ethical debates about genetic intervention in humans, will describe the current ethical debate about human gene editing in light of similar debates going back to the early 20th century.

Ethics of Human Gene Editing


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