ABSTRACT
Developed in 2012, CRISPR-Cas9 is emerging as a powerful new genome engineering technology and as a locus of international concern over the ethical and legal norms that will guide its application in the biosciences. This volume extends beyond the human applications of gene editing technologies to consider the social, cultural, and ecological implications of gene editing technologies. Participants from a wide array of disciplines and professional backgrounds examine and problematize the existing scientific, legal, and political categories and imaginaries that have informed the regulatory regimes pertaining to gene editing. While most emerging conversations have treated human and nonhuman applications of gene editing separately, this collection draws attention to how these new technologies, and CRISPR and gene drives, in particular, apply to nonhuman populations and ecosystems, alongside, and in conversation with, their applications to humans. In addition to shedding a new light on the human–nonhuman divide, novel gene editing technologies like CRISPR and gene drives also challenge other traditional bifurcations, such as that between nature and culture, law and science, public and private, lab science and field science, and synthetic and conservation biology. Such developments arguably bring to heightened focus myriad issues in the nexus of law, science, and the environment.
