"Bringing together historical and ethical insights on the revolutionary, Nobel prize winning CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing technology, this accessible book examines the history of human attempts to understand and control our evolution, how the CRISPR/Cas9 technology works and what it could mean for the elimination of genetic diseases"--.

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Preface
• Chapter 1: Breeding a Perfect Society
  • Beginnings: Davenport and Eugenics in the United States
  • IQ and Involuntary Sterlilization
  • Genetics against Eugenics
  • Exporting Sterlization
  • The Watson Scandal
  • Establishing Human Genetics
  • Davenport’s Dreams Today
• Chapter 2: Molecular Diseases, Elusive Treatments
  • The Molecularization of Biology
  • Molecular Diseases
  • But No Molecular Medicine
  • Dreams of Editing Genes
  • Followed by Stunning Failure
  • Recombinant DNA Made No Difference
  • Gene Editing BC (before CRISPR)
• Chapter 3: What Good Was the Human Genome Project?
  • The Sequence Revealed
  • Common Diseases and Common Variants
  • Medical Irrelevance of the Sequence
  • Critiques of the HGP, Past and Present
  • Evolution and Architecture of the Genome
  • Evolutionary Contingency
• Chapter 4: The CRISPR Revolution
  • The CRISPR Structure Emerges
  • Its Function Is Decoded
  • The Mechanism of Immunity
  • Onward to Gene Editing
  • The Delivery Problem
  • Ubiquitous CRISPR
• Chapter 5: Inevitable Eugenics?
  • Eugenics in the News
  • What Is Eugenics?
  • Defining Eugenics
  • A Working Definition
  • Inescapable Eugenics?
  • Matters of Ethics
• Chapter 6: The Elimination of Genetic Diseases
  • The Long Reach of Huntington’s Disease
  • The He Jiankui Affair
  • The Ethics of Human Germline Intervention
  • The Limits of Current Science
  • Gene Specificity and Lenin’s Brain
  • A Policy Proposal
  • Proceed with Caution
  • Liberal and Moderate Eugenics
• Chapter 7: Designer Baby Delusions
  • Why Not Genetic Enhancement?
  • The Normal and the Enhanced
  • Liberal Eugenics and Genetic Enhancement
  • Rationality of Genetic Enhancement
  • Planned Human Obsolsescence
  • Where Is the Science? The Case of Intelligence
  • Genomics and IQ
  • What about Physical Traits?
  • Genetic Reductionism
  • Contextual Developmental Construction
  • What Is Perfection?
• Chapter 8: A CRISPR Future
  • Editing the Human Germline
  • Gene Drives
  • The Ethics of Promoting Extinction
  • Biosecurity
  • CRISPR without the Hype
• Notes
  • PREFACE
  • CHAPTER 1
  • CHAPTER 2
  • CHAPTER 3
  • CHAPTER 4
  • CHAPTER 5
  • CHAPTER 6
  • CHAPTER 7
  • CHAPTER 8
• References
• Index
• About the Author