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The question of where the line should be drawn in human gene editing, and if it should be allowed to create ‘superhumans’, has been tackled by Doha Debates in the final debate of the Qatar Foundation production’s first season under its new concept.
Three experts participated in an intense discussion on the ethics and challenges of human genetic enhancement during the debate at Northwestern University in Qatar, which, due to the global coronavirus pandemic, was held without its usual live student audience.
But the show’s interactive nature and role as a platform for dialogue and discourse was preserved by Doha Debates correspondent Nelufar Hedayat, who video-conferenced with students and shared tweets and Instagram videos from viewers in countries including Nigeria, the UK, Sweden, and Ghana.
The debate primarily focused on germline editing, which results in heritable changes to DNA — meaning that, if embryonic DNA was edited to produce blue eyes, the genes for blue eyes would be present in a person’s children, and their children’s children – and has earned the world’s attention and criticism in recent years.
Moderator...