If anything eventually it’ll be like gardening seeds. Where yeah, there’s a lot of hybrid seeds that might be good for certain traits, but what a bunch of gardeners really want are heirloom varieties that are more naturally-selected and therefore more reliable over multiple generations.
No, not really that either. That is also advocating for eugenics.
We know there are diseases like cystic fibrosis that would benefit from gene editing. That is not an issue to treat.
It’s just that humans need genetic variety or we will go the route of the Gros Michel banana when a disease hits. There are people immune to HIV for instance - that is good for them for some things, but it is likely that means they have other trade offs for this trait. Gene editing everyone to have it could theoretically mean a different disease like giardia or cholera or whatever could be easier to contract and more deadly.
The advantage of humans is adaptability. We need genetic variety to be adaptable. We cannot all be the same. There is no perfect genetic code or perfect “Adam DNA,” (conservatives believe there is an original DNA code that God gave Adam and if they can access it, they will live hundreds of years like the Bible said people did). They think this because they don’t believe in evolution.
Recommend the book “Half Earth” by E.O. Wilson to better understand why genetic diversity is important. It isn’t long at all.
If anything eventually it’ll be like gardening seeds. Where yeah, there’s a lot of hybrid seeds that might be good for certain traits, but what a bunch of gardeners really want are heirloom varieties that are more naturally-selected and therefore more reliable over multiple generations.
No, not really that either. That is also advocating for eugenics.
We know there are diseases like cystic fibrosis that would benefit from gene editing. That is not an issue to treat.
It’s just that humans need genetic variety or we will go the route of the Gros Michel banana when a disease hits. There are people immune to HIV for instance - that is good for them for some things, but it is likely that means they have other trade offs for this trait. Gene editing everyone to have it could theoretically mean a different disease like giardia or cholera or whatever could be easier to contract and more deadly.
The advantage of humans is adaptability. We need genetic variety to be adaptable. We cannot all be the same. There is no perfect genetic code or perfect “Adam DNA,” (conservatives believe there is an original DNA code that God gave Adam and if they can access it, they will live hundreds of years like the Bible said people did). They think this because they don’t believe in evolution.
Recommend the book “Half Earth” by E.O. Wilson to better understand why genetic diversity is important. It isn’t long at all.