The Guardian view on genetics: engineer, but with ethics | Editorial
The confluence of technology and imagination is what drives science forward, sometimes at astonishing speed. This has been especially true of biology since the structure of DNA was elucidated by Crick and Watson in 1953. The discovery of the chemical basis of life meant that it could be manipulated directly, by chemistry, rather than slowly and indirectly by selective breeding. But, of course, man came late to this game. Viruses had been attacking and subverting DNA for billions of years, and organisms have been defending themselves against such subversion for just as long. Slowly we have learned to find and appropriate the weapons of that long war and turn them to our own purposes. We now have access to tools of astonishing power and precision for the editing of DNA. At the same time we are able to manufacture the substance through pure chemistry. It's possible to glimpse a future in which DNA engineering becomes something as relatively simple as software engineering, and its products become as easy to use.
Easy to use is not at all the same as safe. We have refined our nuclear engineering to the point where unimaginable destruction could be released at the press of a single button. Genetic engineering is not as spectacular, but it might have military applications almost as devastating - even if it were never used directly on humans. The results of a malevolent or a simply flawed experiment could devastate food supplies, weaken disease resistance or increase the virulence of existing pathogens. Entire ecosystems could be destroyed by thoughtless tinkering. This is not an entirely new threat. We have been doing that for millennia now: the history of the settlement of the Americas is (among other things) a ghastly chronicle of ecological destruction, the extermination of animal species, and the use of biological warfare against other human groups. So there is no reserve of natural goodness or moral luck which we can rely on to protect us against such dangers now that they are greater and closer than ever before in history. What will be needed is a profound sense of responsibility towards the planet and towards our fellow human beings.
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