Background

The Engineering the Human Germline Symposium was held March 20, 1998 under the auspices of the UCLA Center for the Study of Evolution and the Origin of Life. 

Recent scientific breakthroughs suggested that the manipulation of the genetic instructions passed to our children was much nearer than previously assumed. It was time for scientists and ethicists to take a fresh look at the possibilities human germline maniplulation might bring, and the challenges it might pose. Engineering the Human Germline provided a realistic scientific assessment of the technology's potential for the next twenty years and reflected on these possibilities. The symposium was intended to serve as the foundation for the approaching public policy debate. 

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Best Hope or Worse Fear?
An internet exploration of the science and ethics of altering the genes we pass to our children produced by the UCLA Program on Medicine, Technology and Society