{"id":546,"date":"2015-07-16T15:39:31","date_gmt":"2015-07-16T15:39:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/genotopia.peachpuff-wolverine-566518.hostingersite.com\/?p=546"},"modified":"2015-07-16T15:39:31","modified_gmt":"2015-07-16T15:39:31","slug":"crispr-and-eugenics-hope-hype-and-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/genotopia\/546\/crispr-and-eugenics-hope-hype-and-history\/","title":{"rendered":"CRISPR and eugenics? Hope, hype, and history"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
(from The Nation)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In a new piece<\/a>\u00a0out today in The Nation<\/a>, I argue that\u00a0both the hand-waving and the hand-wringing about gene editing technologies such as CRISPR<\/a> ushering in a new era of eugenics is a sideshow.<\/p>\n

In some circles, eugenics is no longer a dirty word. Enthusiasts for human genetic improvement, such as John Harris<\/a>, Julian Savulescu<\/a>, and Nicholas Agar<\/a>, like to talk of a new “liberal” or “individual” eugenics. This new eugenics would be free of the state control over reproduction that characterized the old Progressive-era eugenics. In the article, I argue that liberal eugenics is\u00a0really neoliberal<\/em> eugenics. Individual choice does not in fact solve the moral problems of eugenics, as the cheerleaders would have us believe.<\/p>\n

We already know how to achieve meaningful human improvement: through education, public health, and peaceful, \u00a0livable cities. The social determinants of health are far more important for human happiness than genetic engineering will probably ever be.<\/p>\n

CRISPR technology is one of the most potent, versatile technologies to come along in many years. It’s\u00a0looking like this generation’s PCR<\/a>. But sci fi utopias and dystopias are a distraction from both exciting\u00a0basic research and real human improvement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a new piece\u00a0out today in The Nation, I argue that\u00a0both the hand-waving and the hand-wringing about gene editing technologies such as CRISPR ushering in a new era of eugenics is a sideshow. In some circles, eugenics is no longer a dirty word. Enthusiasts for human genetic improvement, such as John Harris, Julian Savulescu, and … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nCRISPR and eugenics? Hope, hype, and history - Genotopia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/genotopia\/546\/crispr-and-eugenics-hope-hype-and-history\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"CRISPR and eugenics? Hope, hype, and history\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In a new piece\u00a0out today in The Nation, I argue that\u00a0both the hand-waving and the hand-wringing about gene editing technologies such as CRISPR ushering in a new era of eugenics is a sideshow. In some circles, eugenics is no longer a dirty word. Enthusiasts for human genetic improvement, such as John Harris, Julian Savulescu, and ... 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From 1997 to 2002, he was on the history faculty at The George Washington University, where he also served as Deputy Director of the Center for History of Recent Science. The Center\u2019s director and founder was Horace Freeland Judson (The Eighth Day of Creation), who, along with John McPhee and Monty Python, Comfort considers among his biggest writing influences. Comfort\u2019s books include The Science of Human Perfection: How Genes Became the Heart of American Medicine (Yale, 2012), The Tangled Field: Barbara McClintock\u2019s Search for the Patterns of Genetic Control (Harvard, 2001), and the edited volume, The Panda\u2019s Black Box: Opening Up the Intelligent Design Debate (Johns Hopkins, 2007). In addition to scholarly articles, he has written for Natural History, the New York Times Book Review, National Public Radio, Nature, Science, New Scientist, The Believer, and other publications. 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