A recent peer-reviewed paper titled, Beneficial Bloodsucking, argues that alpha-gal syndrome — the tick-borne condition that can make people allergic to red meat — should be treated as a form of "moral bioenhancement."
The authors (Western Michigan University professors) argue that because they believe eating meat is morally wrong, intentionally spreading a meat allergy using CRISPR-edited ticks could make people more "virtuous" by forcing them away from mammalian meat.
The paper states that the "permissibility" of their proposal depends on genetically editing lone star ticks in three ways:
Engineering ticks to carry alpha-gal syndrome. Engineering them to survive and spread more widely. Engineering them so they do not transmit other diseases such as tularemia or ehrlichiosis
They specifically cite CRISPR-based tick gene editing as evidence that this kind of manipulation may be feasible, arguing that if scientists can edit ticks to affect Lyme disease transmission, then similar approaches may eventually be applied to lone star ticks.
The most disturbing line is their conclusion: they argue that promoting alpha-gal syndrome is "morally obligatory." According to the authors, this would mean researchers have an obligation to develop the alpha-gal-carrying capacity of ticks, and human agents may be obligated to expose others to alpha-gal syndrome, not prevent its spread, and even undermine attempts to "cure" it....<<<Read More>>>....
