200 Years After Frankenstein

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is 200 years old and remains relevant to 21st-century scientific experimentation. Molecular biologists today have become especially bold in their attempts to cure diseases while remaining mindful of the real dangers of their research. Scientists presumably share an abiding concern about producing uncontrollable mutations in people, animals, and the wider environment, yet a sense of urgency appears to inform the current scientific willingness to take risks, especially in the realm of embryology and germ-line modification. This willingness to go more boldly than before could be influenced by the unprecedented ability of such gene-cutting technologies as CRISPR to make immediate and lasting improvements to persons suffering from certain diseases and other physical malignancies, but also by an acculturated sense that such persons deserve to participate more fully in broader society.