Episode description

Our first speaker is Stanford Law Professor Hank Greely who is the author of the book CRISPR People: The Science and Ethics of Editing Humans. A Chinese scientist recently edited the genes in a human embryo with the purpose of improving that child’s defense to the HIV virus. Three children were born with these genetic enhancements and their progeny will carry those genetic changes in their germline. Hank will discuss whether the science is sufficiently advanced and that the risk/reward makes sense for babies and can the scientific community police itself to adopt appropriate safety procedures before doing this genetic manipulation again. 

Our second speaker is Jacob Appel who is making his third appearance on What Happens Next.  Jacob teaches medical ethics at Mt. Sinai Medical School, and he will provide us with an ethical framework to evaluate human genetic testing. Genetic engineering on babies is coming soon, now what?