“The Ethics of Deliberate Extinction,” Gregory Kaebnick, The Hastings Center

INTERDISCIPLINARY CENTER FOR BIOETHICS - ANIMAL ETHICS STUDY GROUP

Synopsis: Genome editing might open up new ways of controlling populations of wild organisms—suppressing or eradicating local populations, perhaps even driving entire species extinct. Candidate species include the New World screwworm, Anopheline mosquitoes, and certain mice or rats. How should we evaluate proposals to use genome editing in this way?

Kaebnick is the director of the Editorial Department and editor of the Hastings Center Report. He is the author of Humans in Nature: The World As We Find It and the World As We Create It (Oxford, 2014). He served on a National Academy of Sciences committee, Gene Drive Research in Non-Human Organisms: Recommendations for Responsible Conduct. He is also currently principal investigator of a project, funded by the National Science Foundation, on the ethics of causing the extinction of a species by means of genome editing.

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