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A few months into my medical training, I heard Fred Sanger, the Nobel prize-winning biochemist, describe a miracle-DNA sequencing in his lab-and Ray White, a pioneer in human genetics, excitedly reveal the first genetic markers that would grow into a human genetic linkage map [ ]the US Patent and Trademark Office has granted patents on gene editing technologies, but is now-eight years after the critical science was conducted- reviewing a possible \'interference,\' an administrative procedure to sort out competing patent claims on related inventions While the US Congress passes secretive, sloppy funding legislation and patent offices in different jurisdictions craft incoherent policies, a hot debate plays out about whether, when, and under what conditions it might make sense to introduce heritable forms of genome editing into human beings Baylis\'s book, Altered Inheritance, is a plea for broadening the debate beyond a case-by-case technical assessment of risk and potential benefit
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