Modifying Our Genes

Alexander Massmann is a postdoctoral researcher at the Faculty of Divinity at the University of Cambridge. He received his Ph.D. for a study on 20th century theology and ethics. Having published in the subject area of this book proposal, he works in theological ethics, science and theology, and Christian doctrine. Apart from recent articles in biomedical ethics and the science and theology dialogue, he is also the author of Citizenship in Heaven and on Earth: Karl Barth’s Ethics (Fortress, 2015) and editor of Deathless Hopes: Reinventions of Afterlife and Eschatological Beliefs (LIT, 2018, together with C. Hays) Keith R. Fox is Professor of biochemistry, editor of Nucleic Acids Research and has published over 200 peer-reviewed science research papers. He is also the Associate Director of the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion, Cambridge (UK), which is well-known for a strong public outreach programme. A former chairman of Christians in Science, Fox regularly addresses lay audiences on science and faith.

‘This book gives us a clear account of genetic modification techniques with a special focus on genome editing; this is followed by an informative survey of potential and actual applications in human medicine. The authors make us aware of the wide-ranging social, ethical, philosophical and theological issues that arise in considering these applications and in the more general use and interpretation of knowledge of human genetics. A useful addition to the literature.’

• Acknowledgements vii1 Introduction 12 How does genome editing work? 213 Medical opportunities: Therapeutic genome editing 394 Cornucopia or Pandora’s box? Geneticenhancements 675 Eugenics 976 Being human in an age of biotechnology 120Further reading 145Index of names and subjects 147