Posted on 06/04/2025 7:27:17 AM PDT by yesthatjallen
Gene editing holds the potential of suppressing mosquito species that carry deadly diseases — and raises ethical questions.
Yet the development of this technology also raises a profound ethical question: When, if ever, is it okay to intentionally drive a species out of existence? Simoni said he hopes Target Malaria can move beyond the lab and deploy some of the genetically modified mosquitoes in their natural habitats within the next five years. The nonprofit research consortium gets its core funding from the Gates Foundation, backed by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, and Open Philanthropy, backed by Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz and his wife, Cari Tuna.At the heart of Target Malaria’s work is a powerful genetic tool called a gene drive.
“Technology is presenting new options to us,” said Christopher Preston, a University of Montana environmental philosopher. “We might’ve been able to make a species go extinct 150 years ago by harpooning it too much or shooting it out of the sky. But today, we have different options, and extinction could be completed or could be started in a lab.
“This is not a difficult audience, because these are people that are living in an area where children are dying,” said Krystal Birungi, an entomologist for Target Malaria in Uganda, though she added that she sometimes has to fight misinformation, such as the false idea that bites from genetically modified mosquitoes can make people sterile.
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(Excerpt) Read more at us.headtopics.com ...
Eliminate mosquitos, fire ants, and Democrats.
Start with ticks.
“fire ants”
Many years ago I stirred ant mounds with a stick.
I only sprayed hills with aggressive ants.
That seems to have worked well.
Bats would starve!.....................
Bats and Barn Swallows will object strongly
There may be unintended consequences, but I’m willing to take that chance.
What eats mosquitos? Beware the butterfly effect.
And also, isn’t this the concept of some science fiction novels and movies?
They don’t end well.
'Start with ticks.'
That seems redundant.
and Swallows ...
We definitely should not. Taking out part of the food chain is bad. Something eats mosquitos, no mosquitos means they die.
As would fish who eat mosquito larvae.
Dragonflies, too. To say nothing of the aquatic animals that prey upon mosquito larvae.
And Dragon fly larvae!..................
So I say kill the suckers.
Besides, they will never be able to kill them all, so the entire argument is nonsense.
No. Mosquitoes play a role in ecosystems as both a food source for other animals and as pollinators for some plants. They are also important in nutrient recycling within aquatic environments.
“And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.”
Genesis 1:26
Absolutely not. The food chain is an important part of life, and mosquitos are part of that.
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