Be it Resolved, let’s engineer better human beings
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What is the resolution being debated and who are the speakers?
A child should not be a product that is optimized, designed, part of a parent's ambition, a social fashion, and someone who has not consented to have their genome manipulated.
When we can build better humans and we will all have ideas of what better makes, I think we should go for it. I think it's a poor argument against the technology to say it has unknown consequences. Of course it does. We have to learn by doing things in technology. Engineering better human beings is just updated eugenics for the rich.
On this episode, we are airing for the first time on our podcast feed, the Monk Debate on Gene Editing. It took place at the Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts this past spring in front of a live audience of 650 school students and faculty. The debate's resolution was, be it resolved, let's engineer better human beings and proposed a question on Once confined to the world of science fiction, should we enhance our children before birth? Arguing in favor of the motion was biophysicist and bestselling author, biotechnology entrepreneur and the former director of the Program on Medicine, Technology and Society at UCLA School of Medicine, Gregory Stock. His debate partner was Max Moore, an internationally acclaimed philosopher and pioneering transhumanist.
Arguing against the motion was the prominent American bioethicist Ezekiel Emanuel, special advisor to the director general of the WHO and former founding chair of the Department of Bioethics at the National Health Institute in the United States. His debate partner was Joyce Harper, the award-winning educator, author, and professor of reproductive science at University College London. As with all our live debates, the audience voted on the resolution prior to the debate. Initially, 29% were in favor, 35% were opposed. We did another poll after the debate to find out how many people had changed their minds. But before we give you those results, let's first dive into this rich and fascinating debate. We're going to join Gregory Stock with his opening statement in favor of the motion. Be it resolved, let's engineer better human beings.
So, engineering better human beings. Let's be clear what we're talking about, and I think the key word here is better. So, you know, all of you have been talking about this, and I think you can think of a lot of different things that you might mean by better. So rather than get into that tangle, let's pick something that I think we could all agree would be better. Let's look at therapeutic enhancements. That's a class of interventions that are clearly enhancements, but they have therapeutic consequences. An example would be if you could increase cellular repair mechanisms so that we aged more slowly and we lived longer lives that were healthier and fewer diseases. That would be really great. Another example would be if we could enhance our immune systems so that they really didn't act up in the same way. They didn't attack our own bodies sometimes. They didn't get out of control with something that was really relatively harmless. And they were able to fight off diseases in a much more
a solid way, a more aggressive way, a more effective way. Those would be really great. So let's take something like that that I think we can all agree on, and then there's a second quality. It has to be safe and reliable, relatively easy, because if it's not, then, well, maybe nobody would want it. I mean, it's not like we can have great sacrifices to contain these things, but what if it's safe and easy and reliable, and it's also really good for us? So that's what I want to look into, and I think it's important to do, and I think the way that we can look at what we think about that is a series of questions. I like questions. First one is, what if I could give you a pill? You could take that pill, safe and reliable, and it would bump up your immune system so that it was really fantastic and you weren't going to suffer any of these diseases later in your life or would be very unlikely to. Would you take that pill? I would.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the resolution being debated and who are the speakers?
0:00–11:36
2
How does Gregory Stock define “better” and what therapeutic enhancements does he propose?
11:36–23:01
3
What ethical concerns does Joyce Harper raise about the word “better” and genetic diversity?
23:01–34:58
4
How does Max More argue that engineering better humans is an extension of human progress?
34:58–46:30
5
What safety, cost, and accessibility issues do the debaters highlight for gene editing?
46:30–57:50
6
How do the participants address the historical legacy of eugenics and modern regulations?
57:50–1:09:10
7
What are the arguments about individual choice versus societal control in genetic enhancement?
1:09:10–1:20:37
8
What conclusions do the speakers reach in their closing statements and audience poll results?
1:20:37–1:37:13
Speakers
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