Is There a Way to Fix Down Syndrome?

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The couple implanted an embryo into a woman who had trisomy twenty-one. They were able to do it because of new technology that can detect Down syndrome in the womb. The procedure is expensive and unpleasant for the women, but they did it anyway. In countries like scandinavia people with down syndrome are now more likely to terminate their pregnancies.

Shermer and Cobb discuss: objections to genetic engineering (political, religious, cultural) • selective breeding • recombinant DNA • the ethics of genetics • patenting life • gene therapy • gene editing • CRISPR • literature and films on the dangers of genetic engineering • bioweapons • 3 Laws of Behavior Genetics and what people fear about it.

Matthew Cobb is a professor in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Manchester. He is the author of six books: The Idea of the Brain: A History; Life’s Greatest Secret: The Race to Crack the Genetic Code; Generation; The Resistance: The French Fight Against the Nazis; Eleven Days in August: The Liberation of Paris in 1944; and Smell: A Very Short Introduction. He lives in England.