Human Heredity Now and in the Future

READ FULL ARTICLE

Published: February 2019

This Sept. 27, 2018 photo shows petri dishes with citrus seedlings that are used for gene editing research at the University of Florida in Lake Alfred, Fla. Gene-editing tools, with names like CRISPR and TALEN, promise to alter foods precisely, and cheaply—without necessarily adding foreign DNA. Instead, they act like molecular scissors to alter the letters of an organism's own genetic alphabet.

Abstract

The distinctive human characteristic of curiosity, once liberated from belief in supernatural causes of natural phenomena, has led with increasing speed to the brink of a world in which humanity will increasingly direct its own genetic endowment, raising the question of what we most value in being human and how to keep faith with it.

Recommended citation

Meselson, Matthew. "Human Heredity Now and in the Future." European Review, vol. 27. no. 1. (February 2019): 75–79 .