Fear of dystopian change should not blind us to the potential of gene editing | Kenan Malik

If we had given in to such hysteria over IVF, Louise Brown would never have been born

'Designer babies on horizon", ran the headlines. Last week, the Nuffield Council on Bioethics, an independent body advising on policy, published a report on genome editing and human reproduction.

New scientific techniques, such as CRISPR-Cas9 - molecular "scissors" that allow scientists to snip the genome at specific points - have transformed genetics in recent years and raised questions about what is practically possible and ethically acceptable. Despite the lurid headlines, they are not ushering in a new world of designer babies.