A majority of Americans are worried about scientific advances aimed at enhancing humans' natural abilities, according to a new survey from the Pew Research Center.
In the
survey, released today (July 26), researchers got people's opinions on
three emerging medical technologies: gene editing to reduce a baby's risk of
disease, brain chip implantations to make people smarter, and synthetic blood
to improve athletic performance. These technologies are not available right
now, but some researchers are moving toward making these advancements a reality
one day, according to the survey.
The survey included a nationally representative sample of
about 4,700 American adults. In addition, Pew held six small focus groups with
a total of 47 people to discuss the technologies and their potential
implications, and to learn more about people's opinions than could be gleaned
with only the survey.
Overall, the focus-group participants felt that "while
no effort should be spared to help the sick, society should proceed with
caution" regarding technologies that would boost the abilities of healthy
people, "fearing a slippery slope toward the creation of 'superhumans' or
human 'robots,'" the researchers wrote in their summary of the focus
groups' discussions.
Here's how Americans feel about three major enhancements that
the future may bring.
Gene editing
Gene
editing has recently gained ground, particularly with the advent of a
technique called CRISPR, which lets scientists easily make changes to DNA. The
technology has not yet been used in living people, and many researchers argue
that changing a human's DNA is unethical.
In the survey, 68 percent of American adults said that they
were either "somewhat worried" or "very worried" about
using gene editing on a human embryo to reduce a baby's risk of getting certain
diseases later in life. Less than half said that they were "somewhat
enthusiastic" or "very enthusiastic" about using gene editing
for this purpose.
However, when the survey participants were asked
specifically if they would agree to let researchers use gene
editing to reduce the disease riskfor their own child, 48 percent of adults
said they would "probably" or "definitely" want it, 50
percent of adults said that they would not want this for their own child and 2
percent said they didn't know.
Brain chips
Currently, brain chip implants, also called neuroprosthetics,
are available to patients with certain neurological conditions, such as
deafness or Parkinson's disease, according to Pew. In the survey, Pew asked the
respondents what they thought about a brain chip implant that could be used on
people without a specific medical need for it. Rather, the purpose of the
implant would be to improve a person's ability to concentrate and process
information, according to Pew.
The researchers found that 69 percent of Americans were
somewhat worried or very worried about brain chips that would significantly improve
cognitive abilities, and only about one-third (34 percent) of the adults
surveyed reported being somewhat or very enthusiastic about the technology.
Many Americans believe that such technologies would widen
the divide between the "haves" and the "have-nots." In the
survey, 73 percent of the respondents said that brain chips initially would be
available only to the wealthy, for example, which could lead to an increase in
inequality.
Synthetic blood
"Synthetic blood" is currently being developed to
help alleviate blood shortages, according to Pew. However, it may be possible
to develop a type of synthetic blood that could enhance a person's athletic
performance — particularly by making a synthetic blood that
could carry more oxygen than human blood can normally carry.
But 63 percent of the survey respondents said that they were
somewhat or very worried about synthetic blood being used to improve people's
physical abilities, according to the poll. Only 36 percent, on the other hand,
reported that they were somewhat or very enthusiastic about this enhancement.
The degree to which the enhancements were intended to
improve human abilities played a role in how people viewed them, the
researchers noted. For example, with synthetic blood, 47 percent of the
respondents said that they would consider the technology
"appropriate" if the blood gave people the ability to perform at a
level "equal to their own peak abilities," the pollsters found. But
if the improvements were "far beyond that of any human known to
date," only 28 percent viewed the technology as appropriate.
The Pew Research Center poll was conducted online and by
mail between March 2 and March 28, 2016.
**Originally published on Live
Science.