Enhanced Beings Human Germline Modification and the Law

Today, scientists are using CRISPR/Cas9 and other molecular editing tools to alter human gametes and embryos, a practice known as human germline modification. In the near future, these efforts may lead to the birth of children with better health, improved memories, and extended lifespans. However, critics claim that human germline modification exceeds divine and natural boundaries, transforms reproduction into manufacture, and yields apocalyptic outcomes such as the collapse of democracy. Enhanced Beings: Human Germline Modification and the Law analyzes and critiques these objections on both biological and political grounds. Professor Kerry Lynn Macintosh discusses the hidden psychology behind the objections, and describes the laws that affect this new technology. Provocative and timely, Enhanced Beings argues that bans on human germline modification pose a threat to scientists and science, parents, children, foreigners, and society.

Introduction; Part I. Objections to Human Germline Modification: 1. Therapy and enhancement; 2. Transgressing boundaries; 3. Transforming reproduction into manufacture; 4. Stratifying society; 5. Endangering democracy, society, and the species; Part II. Psychological Origins and Consequences of Objections to Human Germline Modification: 6. Psychological essentialism; 7. Envy; Part III. Human Germline Modification and the Law: 8. Existing laws and regulations; 9. Future laws and regulations; 10. Prohibiting human germline modification harms scientists and science, parents, children, foreigners, and society; Conclusion.

Kerry Lynn Macintosh is Professor of Law at Santa Clara University, California, School of Law. She received her B.A. from Pomona College and her J.D. from Stanford Law School. Professor Macintosh is the author of Human Cloning: Four Fallacies and Their Legal Consequences (Cambridge, 2012) and Illegal Beings: Human Clones and the Law (Cambridge, 2005). She has also published articles about infertility, assisted reproductive technologies, and embryonic stem cell research. Professor Macintosh is a member of the American Law Institute, a law reform organization.