Gene-editing technology CRISPR was in the spotlight this week after a biotech startup unveiled a mission to use it to resurrect wooly mammoths by 2027. The Onion provides a helpful guide to common questions about CRISPR.
Q: What is CRISPR?
A: A disappointment to Americans who hoped it was the name of a new fried fast-food chain.
Q: Why is CRISPR so popular?
A: It greatly reduces the cost for researchers to run abhorrent, immoral experiments.
Q: What are its potential upsides?
A: CRISPR could be used to treat patients with rare genetic diseases who are super wealthy.
Q: Is CRISPR dangerous?
A: Currently, no, but scientists are working to correct that.
Q: Has CRISPR already been used to bring extinct species back?
A: No, although it’s quietly been used to replace every possum that died over the past five years with a new lab-created one.
Q: Is gene-editing ethical?
A: It is likely to be quite profitable.
Q: I thought all God’s creatures were perfect?
A: Humanity has waited long enough for God to do something about the left-handed.
Q: Is this the beginning of an age of eugenics?
A: Not the beginning, no.