Hacking Darwin by Jamie Metzl

HACKING DARWIN by Jamie Metzl is subtitled “Genetic Engineering and the Future of Humanity.” Earlier this year Metzl was appointed to the World Health Organization expert advisory committee on developing global standards for the governance and oversight of human genome editing and clearly feels a sense of urgency in addressing breakthroughs in genetic engineering. Obviously familiar with his subject, he includes chapters on “Decoding Identity,” “Stealing Immortality from the Gods,” and “The Ethics of Engineering Ourselves.” Highly relevant to today’s societal debates, Metzl contrasts practices and beliefs across generations and religions, commenting at one point: “it seems likely that parents will affirmatively want to screen out genetic diseases before their pregnancies even begin.  Choosing from among preimplanted embryos in a lab will simply seem far less brutal than abortion.”  Another example which Metzl highlights is the differences between countries, noting, “although China was far behind the West in assisted reproduction technologies only a decade ago, the country is showing the biggest global swing toward widespread acceptance of assisted reproduction.”

HACKING DARWIN is a well-researched text; Metzl includes almost 40 pages of source notes, a helpful index, and suggestions for additional reading.  Our students – who tend to be highly interested in this topic and related CRISPR advances - will appreciate his note that “because the genetic revolution is unfolding so quickly, there are many incredible (and faster-moving) websites, blogs and podcasts that are essential resources very much worth exploring.”