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On recent advances in human engineering

Provocative trends in embryology, genetics, and regenerative medicine

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 December 2016

Roman Anton
Roman Anton*
Affiliation:
Nürtingen-Geislingen University of Economics and Environment
*
Correspondence: Roman Anton, Nürtingen-Geislingen University of Economics and Environment, Neckarsteige 6-10, Nuertingen, Germany. Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

Advances in embryology, genetics, and regenerative medicine regularly attract attention from scientists, scholars, journalists, and policymakers, yet implications of these advances may be broader than commonly supposed. Laboratories culturing human embryos, editing human genes, and creating human-animal chimeras have been working along lines that are now becoming intertwined. Embryogenic methods are weaving traditional in vivo and in vitro distinctions into a new “in vivitro” (in life in glass) fabric. These and other methods known to be in use or thought to be in development promise soon to bring society to startling choices and discomfiting predicaments, all in a global effort to supply reliably rejuvenating stem cells, to grow immunologically nonprovocative replacement organs, and to prevent, treat, cure, or even someday eradicate diseases having genetic or epigenetic mechanisms. With humanity’s human-engineering era now begun, procedural prohibitions, funding restrictions, institutional controls, and transparency rules are proving ineffective, and business incentives are migrating into the most basic life-sciences inquiries, wherein lie huge biomedical potentials and bioethical risks. Rights, health, and heritage are coming into play with bioethical presumptions and formal protections urgently needing reassessment.

Keywords

BioethicsCRISPR/Cas9embryogenic methodsembryologygene editinggeneticshuman-animal chimerashuman engineeringin vitroin vivoregenerative medicine
Type
Articles
Information
Politics and the Life Sciences , Volume 35 , Issue 2 , Fall 2016 , pp. 54 - 68
Copyright
© Association for Politics and the Life Sciences 2016 

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