The existence of CRISPR will very likely change human existence profoundly. The film “Human Nature” is fascinating and covers a fairly wide range of thinking on the impact it will have. I’m glad they’re showing it in schools and I think it should be shown and discussed only after introducing the concept of ethics.
My introduction to ethics was in nursing school and then in the practice of nursing. I happened to work in areas that dealt with life & death issues, like the ER and surgical intensive care, but that was decades ago. Since then things have become a lot more complicated. We wrestled with issues like when and how to discontinue life support and at what point do you declare a patient dead when the team has been trying to revive him. But that was long before anyone had heard of formal/legally binding health care directives.
Then I went to law school. Every law school student in Texas at that time was required to take a semester long course on legal ethics and pass a rather lengthy bar exam section on legal ethics as well, although I have to admit I regularly encountered situations dealing with other attorneys when it seemed as if they had never heard of such a thing as legal ethics.
What struck me as I watched the film is that human genetics is a lot more complicated than it seems to be at first blush. It’s really nifty that modern scientific research allows us to create a “tool” that can very precisely cut into a strand of dna and replace or splice in a slightly different set of “instructions” that can eliminate a deadly health condition. Who wouldn’t want to be able to do that?
But as the teenager with sickle cell anemia said, he recognized he wouldn’t have learned the things he learned from having had to deal with his illness if it had been cured. I am very impressed with his insight and intellect. I think he touched on a very important aspect of the ability to genetically alter human beings. It’s that we don’t know what makes us who we are.
At least we don’t yet know what makes us who we are. Is there a gene for humor, another gene for the ability to tell interesting stories or a gene that makes us an optimist or a pessimist? I could be wrong, but I don’t think we know that. It’s also possible that particular personality traits can only be achieved if one has a cluster of genes in very specific places on the dna strand. I’m guessing that eventually it will be known, but not in my lifetime.
At any rate, philosophers, religious leaders, genetic scientists, experienced attorneys in medical ethics and world leaders will need to work together to develop a baseline of ethical/legal constraints specific to the alteration of human genes. Currently the world seems to be going through a cycle of extreme political upheaval-possibly because of quantum entanglement- so now wouldn’t be a good time to attempt collaboration on such a profound topic.
In addition there’s serious medical/scientific research being done on human consciousness by Roger Penrose, PhD and Stuart Hameroff, MD. Dr. Hameroff is an anesthesiologist at Tucson Medical Center and Roger Penrose is a Nobel Laureate in physics. My understanding of their research is that it’s very likely human consciousness does survive death. It may be that researchers on human consciousness and
researchers on human genetics should collaborate. Wouldn’t that be interesting?
The existence of CRISPR will very likely change human existence profoundly. The film “Human Nature” is fascinating and covers a fairly wide range of thinking on the impact it will have. I’m glad they’re showing it in schools and I think it should be shown and discussed only after introducing the concept of ethics.
My introduction to ethics was in nursing school and then in the practice of nursing. I happened to work in areas that dealt with life & death issues, like the ER and surgical intensive care, but that was decades ago. Since then things have become a lot more complicated. We wrestled with issues like when and how to discontinue life support and at what point do you declare a patient dead when the team has been trying to revive him. But that was long before anyone had heard of formal/legally binding health care directives.
Then I went to law school. Every law school student in Texas at that time was required to take a semester long course on legal ethics and pass a rather lengthy bar exam section on legal ethics as well, although I have to admit I regularly encountered situations dealing with other attorneys when it seemed as if they had never heard of such a thing as legal ethics.
What struck me as I watched the film is that human genetics is a lot more complicated than it seems to be at first blush. It’s really nifty that modern scientific research allows us to create a “tool” that can very precisely cut into a strand of dna and replace or splice in a slightly different set of “instructions” that can eliminate a deadly health condition. The ability to do that could genuinely be called a miracle. Who wouldn’t want to be able to do that?
But, as the teenager with sickle cell anemia said, he recognized he wouldn’t have learned the things he learned from having had to deal with his illness if it had been cured. I am very impressed with his insight and intellect. I think he touched on a very important aspect of the ability to genetically alter human beings. It’s that we don’t know what makes us who we are.
At least we don’t yet know what makes us who we are. Is there a gene for humor, another gene for the ability to tell interesting stories or a gene that makes us an optimist or a pessimist? I could be wrong, but I don’t think we know that. It’s also possible that particular personality traits can only be achieved if one has a cluster of genes in very specific places on the dna strand. I’m guessing that eventually it will be known, but not in my lifetime.
At any rate, philosophers, religious leaders, genetic scientists, experienced attorneys in medical ethics and world leaders will need to work together to develop a baseline of ethical/legal constraints specific to the alteration of human genes. Currently the world seems to be going through a cycle of extreme political upheaval-possibly because of quantum entanglement- so now probably wouldn’t be a good time to attempt collaboration on such a profound topic.
In addition there’s serious medical/scientific research being done on human consciousness by Roger Penrose and Stuart Hameroff, MD. Dr. Hameroff is an anesthesiologist at Tucson Medical Center and Roger Penrose is a Nobel Laureate in physics. My understanding of their research is that it’s very likely human consciousness does survive death. It may be that researchers on human consciousness and
researchers on human genetics should collaborate. Wouldn’t that be interesting?
The interview was interesting. Mr. Rathers questions were realistic and critical, thank you. Can science help people with CRISPR or is it just another scientific development thing to use on humans? What can be changed with these discoveries and breakthroughs in medicine? Is it really going to be helpful, do we need it, will it really open doors since I strongly believe in natural, homeopathic healing methods (it`s at a slower pace sometimes but more humane). It does not mean that Dr. Doudna and her colleagues are on a wrong path but biochemistry is not homeopathy; if it`s able to manipulate the DNA of humans which is very scientific, technical, chemical, then it is not that natural. How far does research want to go with us humans and how much can be taken from us? Is it really helpful and ethical? Personally, I believe that the smartest and best results to fight diseases lie in nature itself, in our many plants and minerals, in human patience and time (!), in non-chemical treatments. The art of healing the body and the mind is to move carefully, to be able to differentiate between what is good and what isn`t for our body and our mind, since both work together, both are connected. What is ethical and what isn`t. What is a treatment worth? For example: does cancer heal with chemotherapy? Too many cancer patients have died with chemo, it is a sad truth, so there is something in the treatment that hurts the body. Chemical treatments alone are not what Dr. Doudna is talking about. It`s something else she works in, a mixture between biology and chemistry, she is a biochemist. Her work is still a big secret and little-known to the public, that is sure. The question is, can her discoveries be used in a positive way without harming us?
Thank you for writing about "Human Nature". It's a beautiful film that I was not aware of even though I had read a number of CRISPR papers, including Doudna's 2012 original. Well done!
With so much political upheaval in the news lately I will confess that I have skipped a few issues of Steady because I just can't take hearing about it all, I needed a break from it.
I watched the interview on my computer, it so fascinated me that I went to a friends house because they have Netflix. We both just sat there mesmerized by the depth and presentation of this film.
I had read that to date a young girl has been cured of Sickle Cell by this very technique and that a form of Blastoma (brain cancer that killed Senator John McCain) had also been successfully treated. Of course more trials are needed on both, but the possibilities are amazing.
It was wonderful to feel positive about something again, that is until my friend said "Just wait till this debate gets to the Supreme Court or the Trump Republicans try to weaponize the tech to sway their uneducated base."
Nothing is hopeful these days is it? Well I only brutzed for a short wile on her words, and then decided to look to the hope and logic of those that see a brighter future. We can have one if we try really hard now can't we.
Informative and thought provoking film. Recommend!!
It could have benefited from additional comments and narrative from Feng Zhang, whose research and contributions to CRISPR/Cas9 are monumental. Many were disappointed when the Nobel did not go to him, or at least include him with the 2 others.
I just watched the movie and was blown away! I was aware of CRISPR but really had only a very basic understanding of what it is. I am so much better educated about it now and so grateful to you folks for making the film.
I chuckled at the Jurassic Park clip, but ruefully, in agreement with "Malcolm" (Jeff Goldblum) when he said, "... your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could that they didn't stop to think if they should."
Certainly, bioethics is something we will have to face and figure out more and more, as there are new scientific developments. We could - but should we?
In these chaotic times, where our scientists are receiving death threats by the ignorant I'm saddened the ignorant vote and place religious zealots in positions that continue to swell the ignorance and take away rights of others. The positives of Crispr outweigh ignorance. I hope democracy and I live long enough to see it come to fruition.
Your the best Dan. Kept me sane through trump, Covid, SCOTUS hearings and finally with Alito the Torquemada and WitchFinder general reborn. I don't know how to make it from here but listening and reading DanRather has kept me Steady. Thank you.
Oh and the movie is great. CRISPER hasn't received enough air and paper play otherwise Alito would have it under his false Christian values and call it the work of the devil instead of the future
It’s been a year already! I’m glad you brought this to the front again. I had watched Human Nature last year. I’m going to rewatch it again to prepare for the follow up. This can cure diseases. I’m sure cost is prohibitive. But clinical trials are hope. I hope they find a way for mental illness and neurological afflictions are in the works. Thank you Dan for all you do and watching for us
Watched this. It was very good. It raises a lot of questions. I think that some people would be to greedy to be able to draw the line where we would use this technology. The cats already out of the bag for good or bad we will see what happens with it
We need to be very afraid of the Supreme Court voting on the states rights in federal elections. They are set to vote on this. The states will have power over federal elections. This is very bad considering the decisions coming from the court lately. Dan Rather please do an article concerning this
Once again Steady has steadied my heart. It will be fascinating to see if our species can make the paradigm shift needed for peace and equality worldwide. Science certainly is a remedy if ethics/integrity are adhered to.
I have a story if you're interested...Probably one of the biggest-(you've probably heard that line a lot too)...
However, I can prove mine...Hope to hear from you.
The existence of CRISPR will very likely change human existence profoundly. The film “Human Nature” is fascinating and covers a fairly wide range of thinking on the impact it will have. I’m glad they’re showing it in schools and I think it should be shown and discussed only after introducing the concept of ethics.
My introduction to ethics was in nursing school and then in the practice of nursing. I happened to work in areas that dealt with life & death issues, like the ER and surgical intensive care, but that was decades ago. Since then things have become a lot more complicated. We wrestled with issues like when and how to discontinue life support and at what point do you declare a patient dead when the team has been trying to revive him. But that was long before anyone had heard of formal/legally binding health care directives.
Then I went to law school. Every law school student in Texas at that time was required to take a semester long course on legal ethics and pass a rather lengthy bar exam section on legal ethics as well, although I have to admit I regularly encountered situations dealing with other attorneys when it seemed as if they had never heard of such a thing as legal ethics.
What struck me as I watched the film is that human genetics is a lot more complicated than it seems to be at first blush. It’s really nifty that modern scientific research allows us to create a “tool” that can very precisely cut into a strand of dna and replace or splice in a slightly different set of “instructions” that can eliminate a deadly health condition. Who wouldn’t want to be able to do that?
But as the teenager with sickle cell anemia said, he recognized he wouldn’t have learned the things he learned from having had to deal with his illness if it had been cured. I am very impressed with his insight and intellect. I think he touched on a very important aspect of the ability to genetically alter human beings. It’s that we don’t know what makes us who we are.
At least we don’t yet know what makes us who we are. Is there a gene for humor, another gene for the ability to tell interesting stories or a gene that makes us an optimist or a pessimist? I could be wrong, but I don’t think we know that. It’s also possible that particular personality traits can only be achieved if one has a cluster of genes in very specific places on the dna strand. I’m guessing that eventually it will be known, but not in my lifetime.
At any rate, philosophers, religious leaders, genetic scientists, experienced attorneys in medical ethics and world leaders will need to work together to develop a baseline of ethical/legal constraints specific to the alteration of human genes. Currently the world seems to be going through a cycle of extreme political upheaval-possibly because of quantum entanglement- so now wouldn’t be a good time to attempt collaboration on such a profound topic.
In addition there’s serious medical/scientific research being done on human consciousness by Roger Penrose, PhD and Stuart Hameroff, MD. Dr. Hameroff is an anesthesiologist at Tucson Medical Center and Roger Penrose is a Nobel Laureate in physics. My understanding of their research is that it’s very likely human consciousness does survive death. It may be that researchers on human consciousness and
researchers on human genetics should collaborate. Wouldn’t that be interesting?
The existence of CRISPR will very likely change human existence profoundly. The film “Human Nature” is fascinating and covers a fairly wide range of thinking on the impact it will have. I’m glad they’re showing it in schools and I think it should be shown and discussed only after introducing the concept of ethics.
My introduction to ethics was in nursing school and then in the practice of nursing. I happened to work in areas that dealt with life & death issues, like the ER and surgical intensive care, but that was decades ago. Since then things have become a lot more complicated. We wrestled with issues like when and how to discontinue life support and at what point do you declare a patient dead when the team has been trying to revive him. But that was long before anyone had heard of formal/legally binding health care directives.
Then I went to law school. Every law school student in Texas at that time was required to take a semester long course on legal ethics and pass a rather lengthy bar exam section on legal ethics as well, although I have to admit I regularly encountered situations dealing with other attorneys when it seemed as if they had never heard of such a thing as legal ethics.
What struck me as I watched the film is that human genetics is a lot more complicated than it seems to be at first blush. It’s really nifty that modern scientific research allows us to create a “tool” that can very precisely cut into a strand of dna and replace or splice in a slightly different set of “instructions” that can eliminate a deadly health condition. The ability to do that could genuinely be called a miracle. Who wouldn’t want to be able to do that?
But, as the teenager with sickle cell anemia said, he recognized he wouldn’t have learned the things he learned from having had to deal with his illness if it had been cured. I am very impressed with his insight and intellect. I think he touched on a very important aspect of the ability to genetically alter human beings. It’s that we don’t know what makes us who we are.
At least we don’t yet know what makes us who we are. Is there a gene for humor, another gene for the ability to tell interesting stories or a gene that makes us an optimist or a pessimist? I could be wrong, but I don’t think we know that. It’s also possible that particular personality traits can only be achieved if one has a cluster of genes in very specific places on the dna strand. I’m guessing that eventually it will be known, but not in my lifetime.
At any rate, philosophers, religious leaders, genetic scientists, experienced attorneys in medical ethics and world leaders will need to work together to develop a baseline of ethical/legal constraints specific to the alteration of human genes. Currently the world seems to be going through a cycle of extreme political upheaval-possibly because of quantum entanglement- so now probably wouldn’t be a good time to attempt collaboration on such a profound topic.
In addition there’s serious medical/scientific research being done on human consciousness by Roger Penrose and Stuart Hameroff, MD. Dr. Hameroff is an anesthesiologist at Tucson Medical Center and Roger Penrose is a Nobel Laureate in physics. My understanding of their research is that it’s very likely human consciousness does survive death. It may be that researchers on human consciousness and
researchers on human genetics should collaborate. Wouldn’t that be interesting?
The interview was interesting. Mr. Rathers questions were realistic and critical, thank you. Can science help people with CRISPR or is it just another scientific development thing to use on humans? What can be changed with these discoveries and breakthroughs in medicine? Is it really going to be helpful, do we need it, will it really open doors since I strongly believe in natural, homeopathic healing methods (it`s at a slower pace sometimes but more humane). It does not mean that Dr. Doudna and her colleagues are on a wrong path but biochemistry is not homeopathy; if it`s able to manipulate the DNA of humans which is very scientific, technical, chemical, then it is not that natural. How far does research want to go with us humans and how much can be taken from us? Is it really helpful and ethical? Personally, I believe that the smartest and best results to fight diseases lie in nature itself, in our many plants and minerals, in human patience and time (!), in non-chemical treatments. The art of healing the body and the mind is to move carefully, to be able to differentiate between what is good and what isn`t for our body and our mind, since both work together, both are connected. What is ethical and what isn`t. What is a treatment worth? For example: does cancer heal with chemotherapy? Too many cancer patients have died with chemo, it is a sad truth, so there is something in the treatment that hurts the body. Chemical treatments alone are not what Dr. Doudna is talking about. It`s something else she works in, a mixture between biology and chemistry, she is a biochemist. Her work is still a big secret and little-known to the public, that is sure. The question is, can her discoveries be used in a positive way without harming us?
Thank you for writing about "Human Nature". It's a beautiful film that I was not aware of even though I had read a number of CRISPR papers, including Doudna's 2012 original. Well done!
With so much political upheaval in the news lately I will confess that I have skipped a few issues of Steady because I just can't take hearing about it all, I needed a break from it.
I watched the interview on my computer, it so fascinated me that I went to a friends house because they have Netflix. We both just sat there mesmerized by the depth and presentation of this film.
I had read that to date a young girl has been cured of Sickle Cell by this very technique and that a form of Blastoma (brain cancer that killed Senator John McCain) had also been successfully treated. Of course more trials are needed on both, but the possibilities are amazing.
It was wonderful to feel positive about something again, that is until my friend said "Just wait till this debate gets to the Supreme Court or the Trump Republicans try to weaponize the tech to sway their uneducated base."
Nothing is hopeful these days is it? Well I only brutzed for a short wile on her words, and then decided to look to the hope and logic of those that see a brighter future. We can have one if we try really hard now can't we.
Informative and thought provoking film. Recommend!!
It could have benefited from additional comments and narrative from Feng Zhang, whose research and contributions to CRISPR/Cas9 are monumental. Many were disappointed when the Nobel did not go to him, or at least include him with the 2 others.
I just watched the movie and was blown away! I was aware of CRISPR but really had only a very basic understanding of what it is. I am so much better educated about it now and so grateful to you folks for making the film.
I chuckled at the Jurassic Park clip, but ruefully, in agreement with "Malcolm" (Jeff Goldblum) when he said, "... your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could that they didn't stop to think if they should."
Certainly, bioethics is something we will have to face and figure out more and more, as there are new scientific developments. We could - but should we?
In these chaotic times, where our scientists are receiving death threats by the ignorant I'm saddened the ignorant vote and place religious zealots in positions that continue to swell the ignorance and take away rights of others. The positives of Crispr outweigh ignorance. I hope democracy and I live long enough to see it come to fruition.
Your the best Dan. Kept me sane through trump, Covid, SCOTUS hearings and finally with Alito the Torquemada and WitchFinder general reborn. I don't know how to make it from here but listening and reading DanRather has kept me Steady. Thank you.
Oh and the movie is great. CRISPER hasn't received enough air and paper play otherwise Alito would have it under his false Christian values and call it the work of the devil instead of the future
It’s been a year already! I’m glad you brought this to the front again. I had watched Human Nature last year. I’m going to rewatch it again to prepare for the follow up. This can cure diseases. I’m sure cost is prohibitive. But clinical trials are hope. I hope they find a way for mental illness and neurological afflictions are in the works. Thank you Dan for all you do and watching for us
Watched this. It was very good. It raises a lot of questions. I think that some people would be to greedy to be able to draw the line where we would use this technology. The cats already out of the bag for good or bad we will see what happens with it
We need to be very afraid of the Supreme Court voting on the states rights in federal elections. They are set to vote on this. The states will have power over federal elections. This is very bad considering the decisions coming from the court lately. Dan Rather please do an article concerning this
This movie is outstanding! Very well done.
Once again Steady has steadied my heart. It will be fascinating to see if our species can make the paradigm shift needed for peace and equality worldwide. Science certainly is a remedy if ethics/integrity are adhered to.
An ancient text in India says "Remember, even the greatest emperors are reduced to nothing more than a few lines in a history book."