[TASC Luncheon] Human Germline Engineering in China and the World

[Robert Kirby]

At Café Baklava Mediterranean Grill, 341 Castro Street, Mountain View

Tuesday June 11th, 11:45 AM

More info: Bob Kirby  (650) 417-5740

RSVP to robert...@gmail.com

Pete Shanks

Human Germline Engineering in China and the World

 

Based on the recent news that a genetic scientist in China has engineered mutations into human embryos, which were then used to produce babies, the “human future” in the title of Pete Shanks’ talk to TASC in 2016 (Extreme Genetic Engineering and the Human Future) may be closer than ever.

 

Pete Shanks, a longtime consultant with the Berkeley based Center for Genetics and Society (CGS), has been active in a range of local and international political movements. CGS is a nonprofit information and public affairs organization working to encourage responsible uses and effective societal governance of human genetic and reproductive technologies and other emerging technologies.

 

Mr. Shanks attended Oxford University, where he studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics, and is the author of Human Genetic Engineering: A Guide for Activists, Skeptics, and the Very Perplexed (Nation Books). He is a regular contributor to Biopolitical Times.

 

Pete will describe the technology used by He Jiankui, the scientist behind the gene-edited babies, summarize the reaction of the global scientific community (for ex., the March call for a moratorium on all clinical uses of human germline editing in Nature), and offer his take on the impact of this development on the notion of reclaiming emerging biotechnologies for the common good.