December 8, 2019- by Steven E. Greer, MD
CBS’ 60 Minutes featured an extremely unethical PhD medical researcher at Harvard named George Church who is manipulating mammalian genomes without any comprehension of the Pandora’s box he is opening. He even has a dating app based on genomic compatibility and diseases.
Private equity is throwing money at him hundreds of millions at a time. Those same Wall Street companies spend big on publicity to get favorable fake stories, ala the Elizabeth Holmes Theranos scandal.
Dr. Church was asked by 60 Minutes’ Scott Pelly if he were playing god by changing evolution and manipulating germ-cell genetics. He brushed off the question by replying, “I am playing engineer. Humans have played engineer for thousands of years” But, of course, manipulating genes is not comparable to other “engineering” ever performed by humans.
Church himself is a self-described odd man with narcolepsy who flunked out of college and was homeless. Scott Pelly asked if he would have been aborted had his own scientific methods of today been available to his mother. He replied, “I hope society values diversity” Again, he had no answer for a tough ethical question.
Society will breed whatever genetic trait is en vogue, just as we have done with pet dog breeds. This will quash diversity and the gene pool. Human-engineered genes will destroy us just like genetic crops destroy the natural food sources now.
Church’s work, and that of others in China, will alter evolution. Yes. That is playing god.
Of course, the propagandists at CBS glossed over these issues and made a puff-piece article for this fraud. CBS has a long track record of hyping unsubstantiated basic science.
Because George Church’s lab has hundreds of millions in private equity backing him, publicists bought off CBS, just as they did with Theranos interviews. Recall, CBS’ Norah O’Donnell gave a cringe-worthy embarrassing interview to Elizabeth Holmes before she was exposed as a fraud.