social issues

A moral imperative

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Genetic engineering, long the province of science fiction, is now a reality. Many of the everyday foods we eat are from genetically modified plants and animals. The science is not only helping to feed people but also holding promise for medicine and other beneficial applications. But the world still gasped when Chinese scientist He Jiankui announced in 2018 that he had helped bring to birth the first human beings, twin girls, whose genes had been edited to give them resistance to HIV. Did he cross a red line?