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Mulling The Genetic Horizon: “Designer Genes”
Should there be limits on using genetic techniques to make healthier—or perhaps one day, even enhanced—humans? This was the Big Idea on the table Thursday night at Designer Genes: Fashioning Our Biological Future, a program of the 2014 World Science Festival. Genetic engineering was one of the first major scientific breakthroughs to be subject to meaningful public scrutiny, said panelist Sheldon Krimsky, a Tufts University bioethicist. In 1976, when scientists were first attempting to perfect the art of recombinant DNA techniques—inserting new genes into bacteria—Cambridge, Massachusetts mayor Alfred Vellucci attempted to ban the practice, which would have greatly inconvenienced the scientists of Harvard University and MIT. But scientists themselves were also hesitant to proceed with genetic techniques unchecked.
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