In Specter’s writings he talks about the Black-footed ferret and how they are struggling in existence being so close to extinction. I found this article exciting for living in the Great Plains my whole life I never knew a lot about the Black-foot ferret, but I’ve heard of them before. Getting to read about how scientist are finding ways of splicing their DNA with other ferret species to help them grow in population again. While doing this the ferrets will be able to multiple and as time goes on they can get back to getting closer and closer to being fully Black footed ferrets, even though they won’t be entirely. Reading about how they lost their primary food source and that they were getting infected by the remaining prairie dogs that were diseased. This final part of the investigation I found as the question states, terrifying because the disease is made up of the same bacterium as the bubonic plague that effected human history.
As a personal opinion I don’t think that gene editing in humans is morally right or should be done. Take a new set of parents for example that want to grow their child artificially and they get to choose what that child looks likes and that could have a detrimental effect the child as they grow up. But in a scientifically based sense I would say that gene editing could be very helpful to society by being able to prevent certain genetic diseases that are passed down like forms of cancer or even arthritis. So much good could actually come from new technologies like this but it is very important to look at the repercussions they could possess.
Chisum – I totally agree with your points of the issue of people playing God, it’s a dangerous game to get into. It’s a tough point to follow through with though, where as you mentioned it’s difficult to deny the bettering of lives for potential future generations. Additionally, it’s hard to say that we have any right to decide what is the optimal form of a child, or saying that a child would be more deserving of being brought into this world if they are better designed. This leads to a slew of potentially dangerous paths, as can be seen from eugenics movements and ideals of what a person needs to be in order to further society. I do like gene editing’s potential prospects for saving animals and plants however, as it is difficult to point out more negative effects of saving animals that are being pushed to extinction by outside factors.