What could possibly go wrong with humans playing God ???


What?! Scientists now can engineer extinction
'Unprecedented power' offered by controversial procedure
2016.09.08

hat if you could get rid of the mosquitoes that carry Zika virus? All of them. An entire species.

Would it be right to do?

What if the gene-editing process known as “gene drives” could modify a species of mice on an island so that only male offspring are produced, effectively setting in motion an irreversible extinction and protecting a species of bird?

What if a tool already existed, dubbed the CRISPR-CAS9, that would simply give “technicians the ability to intervene in evolution, to engineer the fate of an entire species, to dramatically modify ecosystems, and to unleash large-scale environmental changes?”

These are the questions being debated now at the International Union for the Conservation of Nature conference in Hawaii.

The procedure goes way beyond genetically modifying organisms, which, while still controversial, is becoming more common. It includes modifying corn seed to make it resistant to various diseases.

Claire Hope Cummings, an environmental lawyer, is just one of many signatories to a letter that openly calls for “conservation with a conscience” and warns against such manipulation.

The letter, which includes the signatures of luminaries such as environmental icon David Suzuki, physicist Fritjof Capra, organic pioneer Nell Newman and Tom Goldtooth of the Indigenous Environmental Network, is blunt, “Given the obvious dangers of irretrievably releasing genocidal genes into the natural world, and the moral implications of taking such action, we call for a halt to all proposals for the use of gene drive technologies, but especially in conservation.”

Cummings explained in a blog post, “This is not just your everyday genetic modification, known as ‘GMO’; it is a radical new technology, which creates ‘mutagenic chain reactions’ that can reshape living systems in unimaginable ways.”

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Reduced to layman’s terms, gene drives provide a way for scientists to control what otherwise would have been a random process at the gene level. For example, scientists could designate that every offspring is male.

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“The assumption underlying these proposals seems to be that humans have the knowledge, capabilities and prudence to control nature. The idea that we can – and should – use human-driven extinction to address human-caused extinction is appalling.”

She said she’s not alone in her concern, as the letter signed by many reveals.

“We believe that a powerful and potentially dangerous technology such as gene drives, which has not been tested for unintended consequences nor fully evaluated for its ethical and social impacts, should not be promoted as a conservation tool,” the letter said.

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2016/09/what-scientis...kYlVEI0yrXY9.99