title: Genetic modification of the human germ line: The reasons why this project has no future.
abstract: Modification of the human germ line has remained a distant but valuable objective for most biologists since the emergence of genetics (and even before). To study the historical transformations of this project, I have selected three periods - the 1930s, at the pinnacle of eugenics, around 1974 when molecular biology triumphed, and today - and have adopted three criteria to estimate the feasibility of this project: the state of scientific knowledge, the existence of suitable tools, and societal demands. Although the long-awaited techniques to modify the germ line are now available, I will show that most of the expectations behind this project have disappeared, or are considered as being reachable by highly different strategies.
authors.affiliation: Centre Cavaillès, République des savoirs : Lettres, sciences, philosophie, USR 3608, École normale supérieure, 29, rue d'Ulm, 75230 Paris cedex 05, France. Electronic address: michel.morange@ens.fr.
authors.forename: Michel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Morange
mesh_terms: D005053:Eugenics / Q000639:trends*; D024861:Genetic Enhancement; D005854:Germ Cells; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049674:History, 21st Century; D006801:Humans; D008967:Molecular Biology / Q000639:trends*
keywords: Amélioration de l’être humain; Biologie moléculaire; Eugenics; Eugénisme; Genome editing; Homologous recombination; Human enhancement; Molecular biology; Recombinaison homologue; Édition du génome