It is not length of life, but depth of life.Ralph Waldo Emerson

March 2015

  • A Wise Moratorium

    Editing the human genome sounds promising, it points to being able to eliminate or alter genetic diseases and do it in a way that can be inherited. Imagine being a parent and the carrier of a disease, wouldn’t you want your child to be protected. But editing the human genome has grave consequences we have not yet identified. For example the same gene editing technique could also foster beauty or intelligence. Ethicists who’ve been aware of these issues for decades, are beginning to tackle the potential problems. Scientists do too. Actually genes have been edited on animals, but not yet on humans, yet it is believed that this could be possible soon. The United States and most European countries already have some safeguards but many countries don’t. Since the technique could change the human genome for future generations and in essence alter the course of evolution, many are concerned. That is why a group of scientists including the inventors of the gene editing technique have written a paper published in Science magazine calling for a worldwide moratorium on its use. George Q. Daley, a stem cell biologist at Boston Children’s Hospital and a member of the group asking for the moratorium succinctly summarized the consequences of the technique,” It raises the most fundamental of issues about how we are going to take the dramatic step of modifying our own germline and in a sense take control of our genetic destiny, which raises enormous peril for humanity.”

    It’s comforting that with those scientists who at present know the most about the technique, wisdom is prevailing.

  • On Majority-Minority States

    A headline I read: The rise of the majority-minority and the near majority-minority states. They were referring to a key demographic trend. In plain English it means that whites will no longer be the majority in several American states in the near future and those we presently call minorities, meaning Latinos, Blacks and Asians taken as a group, will become the majority. But in a culture with as much racial baggage as that of the United States, one needs to tiptoe around issues of race, and specifically what could be called the darkening of America, hence this pseudo-academic jargon to describe a straightforward phenomenon. Besides, surely the idea of not scaring whites is also a factor. The facts are fascinating. By 2060 the population will be 44% white, down from 80% in 1980. Presently there are 4 majority-minority states—that is states where whites are no longer a majority. They are: California, Hawaii, New Mexico and Texas. In the next five years, Maryland and Nevada will join the ranks. In the 2020’s Arizona, Florida, Georgia and New Jersey will be. By 2060 22 states will be majority-minority and will account for 2/3rd of the American population. Such demographic changes have many political implications. But too they will be a great impetus for learning to live with diversity and transcending the ideas of race. Maybe by then we will have given up this awkward and euphemistic idea of majority-minority and discovered a new vocabulary.

     

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