An in-depth look at genetic alteration in the natural world and the
oppositions to it, seen through the case study of a gene drive for
malaria.
May We Make the World? is an engaging reflection on the history,
nature, goal, and meaning of using a new technological
idea--CRISPR-based genetic engineering--to alter the genome of the
mosquito that carries malaria. This technology, called a "gene drive,"
can alter the sex ratio in Anopheles gambiae mosquitoes, the key
vector for the deadliest form of malaria, falciparum. Falciparum kills
400,000 people a year, and among those, largely the poorest children in
the world. In her sobering examination of the issue, Laurie Zoloth
considers the leading ethical arguments for and against gene drives,
explores the regulatory efforts that have emerged long in advance of the
science, and considers the philosophical questions raised by the
struggle to eliminate malaria.
The development of a gene drive for malaria will have far-reaching
implications, for it represents the first use of genetic engineering of
the natural world and the first creation of a genetic variant intended
to spread in the African wild, beyond human control. Drawing on two
decades of work, Zoloth brilliantly argues that we can understand the
complex moral issues at stake only by carefully reflecting on the
science, the nature of the local and global discourse about genetic
engineering, and the long history of malaria, which--as it transformed
from a worldwide disease to a tropical one--reshaped the world as we
know it.
