BACK of the BOOK
Heard in the Blogosphere
American Medical Association
@AmerMedicalAssn
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No Simple Solutions
“To imagine that we will find a simple solution, I think, doesn’t do service to
the true complexity of the problem. Cancer is part of our genetic inheritance.
We will always have cancer amidst us, within us, amongst us.”
—Siddhartha Mukherjee, MD, PhD, in the PBS documentary series,
Cancer: The Emperor of All Maladies
Embryo Editing: Lessons from Failure
Scientists weigh in on Chinese researchers’ attempt to edit genes in human embryos
with a technique (CRISPR) that would permanently alter the DNA of every cell so
that any changes would be passed on from generation to generation. The experiment
failed but raised important scientific and ethical questions.
“Their study should give pause to any
practitioner who thinks the technology is ready for testing to eradicate
disease genes during in vitro fertilization. This is an unsafe procedure and
should not be practiced at this time,
and perhaps never.”
—George Q. Daley, MD, PhD, director of the Stem Cell Transplantation
Program at Boston Children’s
Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer
Institute, in The New York Times
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ASH Clinical News
“The number-one concern with
this type of technology is that it
changes the germline; as long as
those lineages exist, they will be
propagated to children, and to
children’s children, and so on. The
fact that only the wealthy initially
may have access to this technology
is another ethical issue. Suppose
that everybody could have access
to this? Is this still a bad idea?”
—Eric Schadt, PhD, director of the
Icahn Institute for Genomics and
Multiscale Biology at Mount Sinai
Hospital, on CBS This Morning
“Although it has attracted a lot
of attention, the study simply underscores the point that the technology
is not ready for clinical application in
the human germline. Application of
the technology needs to be on hold
pending a broader societal discussion
of the scientific and ethical issues
surrounding such use.”
—Jennifer A. Doudna, PhD, a
professor of Molecular and Cell
Biology and Chemistry at University
of California: Berkeley, and a pioneer
of the CRISPR technique, in National
Geographic’s “Phenomena” blog
What Good is “Raising
Awareness”?
“People might conflate being knowledgeable about a health issue with taking
action to address it. These awareness [days] seem to be reinforcing that if
you’re aware of the health issue, it’s a good step, and it might be even sufficient to address the health issue. That really flies in the face of the complexity
of the various forces that influence a person’s health and a population’s health.”
—Jonathan Purtle, DrPH, MPH, MSc, assistant professor at
Drexel University’s School of Public Health, discussing his recent
study of whether “awareness days” improved health in The Atlantic
May 2015