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posted by chromas on Wednesday March 28 2018, @10:55PM   Printer-friendly
from the notepad.exe dept.

Interested in responsible gene editing? Join the (new) club

A group of European scientists has founded an international association to discuss and provide guidance on the ethical use of genome editing, a technique with the potential to transform everything from food production and human health to science itself. Organizers launched the new Association for Responsible Research and Innovation in Genome Editing (ARRIGE) at a kick-off meeting in Paris this past Friday.

The high hopes and fears around gene editing—which has the potential to lead to new crops and the elimination of diseases, but also to "designer babies" or insects running amok—have been the topic of dozens of meetings and reports, including a high-profile "summit" in Washington, D.C., in 2015. National science academies and councils, the Council of Europe, and several professional societies have weighed in.

But some researchers worry that the debate isn't broad enough, or lacks the kind of dialogue needed to reach a societal consensus on the introduction of such a pathbreaking new technology. At the Washington, D.C., summit, for instance, "discussion split into two camps: scientific experts explored technical issues, whereas scholars who study science and society addressed questions about the possible disruption to social norms," Sheila Jasanoff of Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government and Benjamin Hurlbut of Arizona State University in Tempe wrote last week in a commentary in Nature. "The two camps did not inform each other."

Where's the club for irresponsible gene editing (and encryption)?


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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by aristarchus on Thursday March 29 2018, @12:04AM (2 children)

    by aristarchus (2645) on Thursday March 29 2018, @12:04AM (#659771) Journal

    διαιτήμασί τε χρήσομαι ἐπ᾽ ὠφελείῃ καμνόντων κατὰ δύναμιν καὶ κρίσιν ἐμήν, ἐπὶ δηλήσει δὲ καὶ ἀδικίῃ εἴρξειν.

    Hippocrates [wikipedia.org]

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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by c0lo on Thursday March 29 2018, @01:01AM

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Thursday March 29 2018, @01:01AM (#659795) Journal

    For the sake of PoV diversity

    Why do you insist that the human genetic code is “sacred” or “taboo”?
    It is a chemical process and nothing more. For that matter we are chemical processes and nothing more. If you deny yourself a useful tool simply because it reminds you uncomfortably of your mortality, you have uselessly and pointlessly crippled yourself.

    —Chairman Sheng-ji Yang,
          "Looking God in the Eye"

    Remember, genes are NOT blueprints. This means you can't, for example, insert "the genes for an elephant's trunk" into a giraffe and get a giraffe with a trunk. There are no genes for trunks. What you CAN do with genes is chemistry, since DNA codes for chemicals. For instance, we can in theory splice the native plants' talent for nitrogen fixation into a terran plant.

    --Academician Prokhor Zakharov,
          "Nonlinear Genetics"

    --
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
  • (Score: 2, Funny) by khallow on Thursday March 29 2018, @03:00PM

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Thursday March 29 2018, @03:00PM (#659987) Journal
    Google translation:

    I have been using a dietary remedy in abeyance and judgment, because I did not say anything wrong.

    Words to live by!