DNA-based technology’s entry into the mainstream has been picking up lately…. But rapid advances mean it is becoming increasingly feasible to go further and start editing out this defective code, either using gene therapies or editing genes in the embryo.
As the authors of an essay in Science noted, the imperative to help those afflicted by genetic disease could be causing us to ignore the significance of what it means to tinker with our genetic makeup.
“The urgency to rebuild ourselves following disease and injury impels many patients to want therapies now, without a concern for how the technologies being used on our cells or bodies may affect human identity,” they write.
What constitutes human identity or personhood is an ongoing matter of debate.
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“If the self is partly but not wholly the physical body, then does it matter if we edit a gene, replace cells, or change an organ?” ask the authors of the essay.
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More broadly, related questions about what it means to be a human being are also likely to come to the fore…Will humanity split into sub-species of enhanced and non-enhanced humans? Will enhanced humans still be humans?
The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion, and analysis. Read full, original post: Gene Editing Might Change What Being Human Actually Means
For more background on the Genetic Literacy Project, read GLP on Wikipedia
