Stop designer babies
On November 25 th 2018, the world changed, with the announcement by ‘rogue scientist’, He Jiankui, of the birth of the world’s first genetically modified (GM) babies in China. Is this the start of a new era of human history, the age of designer baby eugenics? Despite widespread condemnation of He Jiankui’s actions, the world’s leading scientific organisations refused to consider civil society organisations’ demand for a moratorium. Instead, they said that they would be pushing ahead with the application of
“Now that we’ve seen the first two designer babies, it’s time for the governments of the world to say: no more. Instead of trying to genetically ‘improve’ children, we need to nurture the wonderful children we already have.