Cut-and-Paste Genetics

Sahotra Sarkar

doi:10.5771/9781786614391

Summary

The emergence of CRISPR/Cas9 technology has revolutionized gene editing. The Nobel prize for chemistry was awarded to Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna, the scientists responsible for its discovery, in 2020 and it is considered the frontier of sophisticated medical science. This technology contains the promise that both gene therapy and eugenic control of human evolution is possible, even plausible, in our near future.

This book looks at these developements in the context of the history of previous social and scientific attempts at genetic editing, and explores the policy and ethical challenges they raise. It presents the case for altering the human germ-line (which contains and controls hereditary genetic information) to eliminate a large number of genetic diseases controlled by a single or few genes, while pointing out that gene therapy is likely to be ineffective for diseases with more complex causes. In parallel it explores the possibility of genetic enhancement in a set of case studies. But it also argues that, in general, genetic enhancement is ethically problematic and should be approached with caution.

Given the success of CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing, and the explosion of related techniques, in practice it would be virtually impossible to ban germ-line editing in our future. A more useful goal is to put regulation in place, with oversight that represents the interests of society. That, in turn, requires an informed public discussion of these issues, which is the intention of this book.

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Bibliographic data

Publication year: 2021
Publication date: 15.09.2021
ISBN-Print: 978-1-78661-437-7
ISBN-Online: 978-1-78661-439-1
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham
Language: English
Pages: 206
Product type: Book Titles

1. Dedication No access
2. Contents No access
3. Preface No access
1. Beginnings: Davenport and Eugenics in the United States No access
2. IQ and Involuntary Sterlilization No access
3. Genetics against Eugenics No access
4. Exporting Sterlization No access
5. The Watson Scandal No access
6. Establishing Human Genetics No access
7. Davenport’s Dreams Today No access
1. The Molecularization of Biology No access
2. Molecular Diseases No access
3. But No Molecular Medicine No access
4. Dreams of Editing Genes No access
5. Followed by Stunning Failure No access
6. Recombinant DNA Made No Difference No access
7. Gene Editing BC (before CRISPR) No access
1. The Sequence Revealed No access
2. Common Diseases and Common Variants No access
3. Medical Irrelevance of the Sequence No access
4. Critiques of the HGP, Past and Present No access
5. Evolution and Architecture of the Genome No access
6. Evolutionary Contingency No access
1. The CRISPR Structure Emerges No access
2. Its Function Is Decoded No access
3. The Mechanism of Immunity No access
4. Onward to Gene Editing No access
5. The Delivery Problem No access
6. Ubiquitous CRISPR No access
1. Eugenics in the News No access
2. What Is Eugenics? No access
3. Defining Eugenics No access
4. A Working Definition No access
5. Inescapable Eugenics? No access
6. Matters of Ethics No access
1. The Long Reach of Huntington’s Disease No access
2. The He Jiankui Affair No access
3. The Ethics of Human Germline Intervention No access
4. The Limits of Current Science No access
5. Gene Specificity and Lenin’s Brain No access
6. A Policy Proposal No access
7. Proceed with Caution No access
8. Liberal and Moderate Eugenics No access
1. Why Not Genetic Enhancement? No access
2. The Normal and the Enhanced No access
3. Liberal Eugenics and Genetic Enhancement No access
4. Rationality of Genetic Enhancement No access
5. Planned Human Obsolsescence No access
6. Where Is the Science? The Case of Intelligence No access
7. Genomics and IQ No access
8. What about Physical Traits? No access
9. Genetic Reductionism No access
10. Contextual Developmental Construction No access
11. What Is Perfection? No access
1. Editing the Human Germline No access
2. Gene Drives No access
3. The Ethics of Promoting Extinction No access
4. Biosecurity No access
5. CRISPR without the Hype No access
1. PREFACE No access
2. CHAPTER 1 No access
3. CHAPTER 2 No access
4. CHAPTER 3 No access
5. CHAPTER 4 No access
6. CHAPTER 5 No access
7. CHAPTER 6 No access
8. CHAPTER 7 No access
9. CHAPTER 8 No access
References No access Pages 179 - 194
Index No access Pages 195 - 204
About the Author No access Pages 205 - 206