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from the what-color-do-you-want-her-eyes-to-be? dept.
David Baltimore: I fully agree — and the whole group of us involved in the summits agree — that we're not ready to be doing germline modification of humans, if we ever are. You might say, "Well, that's a moratorium," and, in a sense, it is. I don't have a big argument about that.
But the important point is to be flexible going forward. That's what's wrong with a moratorium. It's that the idea gets fixed in people's minds that we're making firm statements about what we don't want to do and for how long we don't want to do it.
With a science that's moving forward as rapidly as this science is, you want to be able to adapt to new discoveries, new opportunities and new understandings. To make rules is probably not a good idea.
What's a good idea is to be on top of a changing environment and to adjust to it as time goes by. And that's both an ethical environment and a practical environment of the mechanics of gene editing.
The Clone Wars, begun they have.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday April 03 2019, @08:40PM (1 child)
Human males already have proportionately bigger tools than other primates.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Wednesday April 03 2019, @09:59PM
Other primates are not being constantly told that the tools should be bigger. They actually do the business in a few seconds and move on.
What amuses me the most about that is how adult fans of the NBA do not go around believing that some shoddy website's secret chemical will indeed make them 6 inches taller, capable of sinking 75% of their 3-pointers, and/or get triple-doubles.
Yet, when told they'll have porn-star performance ...