{"id":292752,"date":"2016-08-16T18:04:44","date_gmt":"2016-08-16T22:04:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rael.org\/?p=292752"},"modified":"2021-01-16T18:11:04","modified_gmt":"2021-01-16T23:11:04","slug":"china-may-be-the-future-of-genetic-enchancement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/noproxy.rael.org\/it\/china-may-be-the-future-of-genetic-enchancement\/","title":{"rendered":"China may be the future of genetic enchancement"},"content":{"rendered":"
RAEL\u2019S COMMENT:<\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n
China is the future of everything and should have always been without the barbaric colonialism and vandalism from Europe.<\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n

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We may soon be able to edit people\u2019s DNA to cure diseases like cancer, but will this lead to designer babies? If so, bioethicist G Owen Schaefer argues that China will lead the way.<\/p>\n

Would you want to alter your future children\u2019s genes to make them smarter, stronger or better-looking? As the state of the science brings prospects like these closer to reality, an international debate has been raging over the ethics of enhancing human capacities with biotechnologies such as so-called smart pills, brain implants and gene editing. This discussion has only intensified in the past year with the advent of the CRISPR-cas9 gene editing tool, which raises the specter of tinkering with our DNA to improve traits like intelligence, athleticism and even moral reasoning.<\/p>\n

So are we on the brink of a brave new world of genetically enhanced humanity? Perhaps. And there\u2019s an interesting wrinkle: It\u2019s reasonable to believe that any seismic shift toward genetic enhancement will not be centered in Western countries like the US or the UK, where many modern technologies are pioneered. Instead, genetic enhancement is more likely to emerge out of China.<\/p>\n

A recent study of 4,726 Americans found that most would not want to use a brain chip to improve their memory
\nNumerous surveys\u00a0among Western populations have found significant opposition to many forms of human enhancement. For example, a recent\u00a0Pew study\u00a0of 4,726 Americans found that most would not want to use a brain chip to improve their memory, and a plurality view such interventions as morally unacceptable.<\/p>\n

Designer babies<\/p>\n

A\u00a0broader review of public opinion studies\u00a0found significant opposition in countries like Germany, the U.S. and the U.K. to selecting the best embryos for implantation based on nonmedical traits like appearance or intelligence. There is\u00a0even less support\u00a0for editing genes directly to improve traits in so-called designer babies.<\/p>\n

Opposition to enhancement, especially genetic enhancement, has several sources. The above-mentioned Pew poll found that safety is a big concern \u2013 in line with experts who say that tinkering with the human genome\u00a0carries significant risks. These risks may be accepted when treating medical conditions, but less so for enhancing nonmedical traits like intelligence and appearance. At the same time, ethical objections often arise. Scientists can be seen as \u201cplaying God\u201d and tampering with nature. There are also worries about inequality, creating a new generation of enhanced individuals who are heavily advantaged over others.\u00a0Brave New World\u00a0is a dystopia, after all.<\/p>\n

In China, there are more generally approving attitudes toward old-fashioned eugenics programs<\/p>\n

However, those studies have focused on Western attitudes. There has been much less polling in non-Western countries. There is\u00a0some evidence that in Japan\u00a0there is similar opposition to enhancement as in the West. Other countries, such as China and India, are\u00a0more positive\u00a0toward enhancement. In China, this may be linked to more\u00a0generally approving attitudes\u00a0toward old-fashioned eugenics programs such as selective abortion of fetuses with severe genetic disorders, though more research is needed to fully explain the difference. This has led Darryl Macer of the Eubios Ethics Institute to posit that\u00a0Asia will be at the forefront\u00a0of expansion of human enhancement.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, the biggest barrier to genetic enhancement will be broader statutes banning gene editing.\u00a0A recent study\u00a0found bans on germline genetic modification \u2013 that is, those that are passed on to descendants \u2013 are in effect throughout Europe, Canada and Australia. China, India and other non-Western countries, however, have laxer regulatory regimes \u2013 restrictions, if they exist, are often in the form of guidelines rather than statutes.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/future\/article\/20160804-china-may-be-the-future-of-genetic-enhancement<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RAEL\u2019S COMMENT: China is the future of everything and should have always been without the barbaric colonialism and vandalism from Europe.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":71,"featured_media":292753,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-292752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/noproxy.rael.org\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/noproxy.rael.org\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/noproxy.rael.org\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noproxy.rael.org\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/71"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noproxy.rael.org\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=292752"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/noproxy.rael.org\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292752\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noproxy.rael.org\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/292753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/noproxy.rael.org\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noproxy.rael.org\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noproxy.rael.org\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}