Cut + Paste responses
In our exhibition, Cut + Paste, visitors are invited to share their thoughts, questions and comments on the ethics of genome editing. As we collect these questions between February and December 2023, we'll be sharing a selection here, along with some responses to questions from our researchers.
Exhibition homepage
Back to Cut + PasteResponses
"It’s unfair to change something about a baby before they get a chance to say what they want to change about themselves because they might like how they are."
- Exhibition visitor
"I think what I’m really left thinking about is - who actually has that power to make these decisions? Is it the human being themselves? Is it the government? Is it doctors? I do think at some level we do, as every human being, need to have the ability to make that choice."
- Exhibition visitor
Responses
"Variation can be a celebration, not a problem to solve."
- Exhibition visitor
"I always thought that genome editing was sci-fi - actually it's a huge part of science today."
- Exhibition visitor
Responses
"Genome editing can’t be disinvented, so we need, as individuals and societies, to debate what we are going to permit to be done with it. We all have opinions, and we’re all going to need to discuss these issues time and time again over the next decades, just as we have done with abortion, nuclear weapons and similar topics. "
- Exhibition visitor
"I think this stuff is too important to be left to chance. We have to be experimenting in this space responsibly rather than hoping that somebody else will do it and do it well.
I think our values are incredibly important in this space, as they will be for other emerging technologies."
- Exhibition visitor
Responses
"I don't think we should be making superhumans. I think that's highly unethical."
- Exhibition visitor
"What will our boundaries for this tool be?"
