US company plans to gene edit cats to make them non allergic

[Catherine]

Quote:I agree totally. The ethical issues need a lot of discussion. An ethical investigative commission would seem needed before any decision is made even about planning on such work.

We have the ability to do a lot of things that were the stuff of horror films and science fiction movies years ago. It is not the technology that has a problem. Some of the things we can do are amazing. What we haven't done is sort out the ethical issues. The question is no longer can we do it, it is should we do it. Is something the right thing to do. Genetic modification of another species, for our benefit, not theirs, doesn't seem to be the right move ethically. It is being done without the informed consent of the cats involved and it could put their whole species at risk.  If we have learned anything for horror films and science fiction movies it is that things don't always go the way we expect them to go. Sometimes chaos happens. When that chaos involves the gene editing of another species we need to think it over and proceed cautiously.