Tag: genetics
A promising new medical technique known as gene editing—deleting, inserting, or replacing genes in human cells—has the potential to cure many genetic diseases. But ethicist Marcy Darnovsky of the Center for Genetics and Society is concerned about the safety of the technology, the ethical questions it raises, the unintended consequences that may be passed on to future generations, and the possibility of wealthy parents genetically enhancing their children regardless of medical necessity. More
“Computers will match us in emotional intelligence, which includes our whole moral system,” says inventor and computer scientist Ray Kurzweil. More
Is the promise of direct-to-consumer genetic testing being oversold? What ethical and public policy concerns does selling genetic tests directly to the public raise? More
The practice of “familial searching” is causing a conflict between solving crimes and protecting privacy. Police can now take DNA from a crime scene and compare it to millions of DNA samples in a government database. If there is even a partial match, that could lead to the criminal by way of his or her family members if their DNA is in the database. More
Is God really there? Or does the search for the existence of a supernatural being, so pervasive in all cultures ever studied, represent a universal but groundless human longing for something outside ourselves to give meaning to a meaningless … More
BOB ABERNETHY: Several recent best-selling books have sharpened the old debate between some scientists and some religionists over creation, evolution and, among other issues, stem cell research. We want to re-run today a story we carried this past summer … More
As a result of the Human Genome Project, we now know much more about a person’s medical future than ever before. But this new knowledge has given rise to many medical, legal, and ethical questions More
BOB ABERNETHY: Sometime this month, scientists say they will announce that they have mapped almost all the human genome, the inherited instructions that tell our bodies what to do. The promise of the new knowledge is so vast, some … More
BOB ABERNETHY: Are you a mainline Protestant? An Evangelical Protestant? What are you? DR. FRANCIS COLLINS: I guess I’d call myself a serious Christian. That is someone who believes in the reality of Christ’s death and resurrection, and who … More
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