SPOCK: There is that possibility, Captain. His age would be correct. In 1993, a group of these young supermen did seize power simultaneously in over forty nations.
KIRK: Well, they were hardly supermen. They were aggressive, arrogant. They began to battle among themselves.
SPOCK: Because the scientists overlooked one fact. Superior ability breeds superior ambition.
ST:TOS, "Space Seed" 1967
This is how "The Wrath of Khan" began.
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Anyone remember the first heart transplant? The self-promoting surgeon, Christiaan Barnard, jumped the ethical gun by five years at least.
Pioneering efforts are often made like Drs. Barnard and He and–love 'em or hate 'em–they usually speed things up, in a good way.
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Isn't China the country that would keep prisoners awaiting execution "on ice" until some somebody needing a body organ would pop up and then the prisoner would be dispatched with a bullet to the brain and said organ harvested?
Isn't China the country that does not honor other country's copyright and trade-secret laws and commits industrial espionage on a daily basis?
Chinese ethics is an oxymoron.
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Ethics has never slowed down science in our country or any country. when stakes are high ( potential riches) everything else becomes secondary.
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It seems science and tech are the same everywhere, singling China out is a mistake. Look, this guy may be considered by Dr Frankenstein by some but SV did far more damages by manipulating people's psychology
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So, which ones exactly are the ethic concerns?
Why is taking a drug for life to manage a disease more ethical than avoiding the disease by genetic manipulation.
Why is taking a drug for life to compensate for a genetic defect more ethical than fixing the defect by genetic manipulation.
I would understand ethic concerns if this were a manipulation to alter physical appearance, but if it were possible to avoid a disease or genetic defect via genetic manipulation, I fail to see the ethic problem.
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@Ricardo Re: "I would understand ethic concerns if this were a manipulation to alter physical appearance..."
I wouldn't. We manipulate physical appearance by choosing mates, so why not do so with CRISPR?
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the ethical concerns lie in the fact that you are modifying not just the current subject but all of his/her descendants. this might seem ok to do for diseases but the fact is that the scientific community doesn't yet fully understand the long term side effects of this on the affected bloodline and the human population as a whole. there are numerous cases of scientists altering natural order of things only to find that nature has a reson for every creature and artifact. there is a well documented case in Australia where by an insect widely considered a nuisance was exterminated and it disrupted the biological harmony of the local ecosystem.
one of the bedrocks of modern medicine the use of antibiotics is actually leading to a creation of drug resistant bacteria and the scientific community doesn't have any consensus on how to solve this.
this is precisely why such technologies need to undergo a lengthy and exhaustive testing phase on insects and mice before being systematically induced into human medical treatment. hope this explanation helps.
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In order to realize "China's Great Dream":
Genetically engineered babies,
Socially engineered Uyghurs,
If No ONe Says Anything,
When there is a morality crisis,
And in China it continuously occurs,
So much injustices done to innocent people,
And Yet NO ONE criticizes the wrongdoer,
What can I say, what can I say:
Only can I say:
Kindness and goodness in humanity disappears!
4
No one criticizes? I presume you just read the article which is about the criticism of this. 100 Chinese scientist it says, criticise it. Various critical quotes are in the article. Please re read the article.
I am not a fan of any "genetic engineering", including the new CRISPR paths, falsely advertised as "safe".
However. I truly admire He Jiankui. Truly.
Contrary to the noise from mainstream academics about "this is not how science is done!" - He has demonstrated for the world that this IS exactly how science is done.
OF COURSE there are secret labs doing this kind of engineering on humans; right now, today.
Governments and corporations have far too much to gain to wait for those prissy "ethics" people to make up their minds; they're just doing it. Now.
Now - no one can ignore the REALITY of engineering humans. It's here. Been done.
Now we have to stop pretending we can put off dealing with it.
He Jiankui took action - as an individual, please note. He also took full responsibility- and like a true scientist- made his work publicly available for review; no secrecy. The specific target of his work, resistance to AIDS, should have few downsides. And note he did not start off by creating "super-humans" of any kind.
He has my complete respect.
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