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The quest to create gene-edited babies gets a reboot as Silicon Valley venture capitalists fear falling birth rates pose an existential threat to the human race
There's a fresh push to edit the genes of human embryos to prevent diseases and enhance characteristics that parents value. Bioethicists say just because it's possible doesn't mean it should be done.
Now, however, Silicon Valley venture capitalists, futurists, East Coast entrepreneurs, and pronatalists — who fear falling birth rates pose an existential threat to the human race — are eager to push the technology forward. "We are definitely evaluating whether it makes sense to actually incubate and help build a company that we think could do this safely and responsibly," said Lucas Harrington, who co-founded SciFounders, a San Francisco venture capital firm. "I do think this is a dangerous moment," said Ben Hurlbut, a bioethicist at Arizona State University who recently helped organize an international meeting on inheritable human gene-editing.
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