Bad Blood - 6. Newgenics

Seriously...

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary

4.1 • 885 Ratings

🗓️ 24 December 2022

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Are we entering a ‘newgenic’ age - where cutting-edge technologies and the power of personal choice could achieve the kind of genetic perfection that 20th century eugenicists were after?

In 2018, a Chinese scientist illegally attempted to precision edit the genome of two embryos. It didn’t work as intended. Twin sisters - Lulu and Nana - were later born, but their identity, and the status of their health, is shrouded in secrecy. They were the first designer babies.

Other technological developments are also coming together in ways that could change reproduction: IVF can produce multiple viable embryos, and polygenic screening could be used to select between them.

Increased understanding and control of our genetics is seen as a threat by some - an inevitable force for division. But instead of allowing genetics to separate and rank people, perhaps there’s a way it can be used - actively - to promote equality. Professor Paige Harden shares her suggestion of an anti-eugenic politics which makes use of genetic information.

Contributors: Dr Helen O'Neill, lecturer in Reproductive and Molecular Genetics at University College London, Dr Jamie Metzl, author of Hacking Darwin, Professor Kathryn Paige Harden from the University of Texas and author of The Genetic Lottery: Why DNA Matters for Social Equality.

Music and Sound design: Jon Nicholls Presenter: Adam Rutherford Producer: Ilan Goodman

Clips: 28th Nov 2018 - BBC Newsday report, BBC Breakfast News / BBC Breakfast news report Chinese letter of condemnation / BBC Newsnight from 1988 on 10th anniversary of Louise Brown’s birth

Transcript

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0:00.0	This was an impregnable fortress. The only way you get out was in a wooden box.
0:05.0	The controversial maximum security prison impossible to escape from.
0:09.0	And one of the duties of a political prisoner is the escape.
0:12.0	The IRA inmates who found a way. of a political prisoner is the escape.
0:12.5	The IRA inmates who found a way.
0:14.5	I'm Carlo Gableer and I'll be navigating a path
0:19.5	through the disturbing inside story of the biggest jailbreak in British and Irish history.
0:25.0	The narrative that they want is that this is a big achievement by them.
0:28.5	Escape from the maze, listen first on BBC Sounds.
0:35.0	BBC Sounds.
0:36.0	BBC Sounds, Music Radio Podcasts.
0:39.0	Hello, I'm Adam Rutherford and you're listening to seriously from BBC Radio 4.
0:44.0	You're about to hear New Genix, the final episode of bad blood.
0:48.4	What happens in the future as we gain increasing mastery over our own genetics.
0:53.8	Will it be the dawn of a new eugenic era?
0:56.5	So far in bad blood, we've explored the history of eugenics and its resonance in today's world.
1:08.0	But today we're looking forward.
1:10.0	In an age of genetic screening, gene editing and embryo selection, where do we go from here?
1:17.0	It starts with a buzzing phone at dawn.
1:25.0	On the 28th of November 2018, I was awoken to discover a barrage of missed calls, text messages and voicemails.
1:35.8	Something new and dramatic had happened in my professional world and news was coming in from Hong Kong.
1:57.2	On the 27th of November in 2018 I got on a flight to Hong Kong. I was traveling to go speak at the International Summit on Human Genome editing. I was planning to give a lecture on how we can safely develop a bench to clinical pipeline for human germline
	...

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