Evidence map›Paper›PMID 30941781›Full record

ArticleBioethics2020

Great minds think different: Preserving cognitive diversity in an age of gene editing.

Jonathan Anomaly, Christopher Gyngell, Julian Savulescu

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Bioethics, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
6citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

6 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Review
  2. Review
  3. Article
  4. Can 'eugenics' be defended?Monash bioethics review · 2021
    Article
  5. Article
  6. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors.

Jonathan AnomalyUniversity of California at San Diego, San Diego, CA, USA.ORCID 0000-0001-5485-0121
Christopher GyngellUniversity of Melbourne and Melbourne Law School, Victoria, Australia.ORCID 0000-0002-1340-3947
Julian SavulescuOxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics, University of Oxford, UK.ORCID 0000-0003-1691-6403

Funding

Wellcome Trust 203132/Z/16/Z
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

It is likely that gene editing technologies will become viable in the current century. As scientists uncover the genetic contribution to personality traits and cognitive styles, parents will face hard choices. Some of these choices will involve trade-offs from the standpoint of the individual's welfare, while others will involve trade-offs between what is best for each and what is good for all. Although we think we should generally defer to the informed choices of parents about what kinds of children to create, we argue that decisions to manipulate polygenic psychological traits will be much more ethically complicated than choosing Mendelian traits like blood type. We end by defending the principle of regulatory parsimony, which holds that when legislation is necessary to prevent serious harms, we should aim for simple rules that apply to all, rather than micro-managing parental choices that shape the traits of their children. While we focus on embryo selection and gene editing, our arguments apply to all powerful technologies which influence the development of children.

Indexed as

CognitionDecision MakingGene EditingGenetic EnhancementGovernment RegulationHumansParentsPersonalitycognitive diversityembryo selectiongene editinggenetic enhancementregulatory parsimony

Identifiers

PMID30941781
PMCPMC6973122

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.