11/01/2025
Doctor Neal Baer is the editor of a new book about about the incredible promise and potential pitfalls of CRISPR gene-editing technology. Doctor Baer talks to the science web portal "Live Science" and discusses some of the arguments debated in this book comprising researches, bioethicists and philosophers. For example, Doctor Baer questions whether society has the right to decide if people with Downs' Syndrome should exist. He also explains "I did want to expand the viewpoints to positions that hadn't been written about, hear from people we hadn't heard from. For instance, one of very few trans bioethicists, Florence Ashley from Toronto, writes about [whether people might try to use] CRISPR in some way to "treat" trans people, or make them not trans? That's a complicated question because there's not really a gene that makes one trans, but there might be elements that are common amongst trans people." The new book, "The Promise and Peril of CRISPR" (2024, Johns Hopkins University Press) is available now. Why not support community businesses, by ordering your copy through LGBTQIA Bookstores, radical and progressive bookstores in your area.
