The human being is not a perfect biological machine. Molecular genetics, however, could already be used today to enhance our essence and make us stronger, more resistant to tumors, longer-lived, and provide us with a superior memory. In practice, “to transform us into superhumans”. The essay “Higher than the gods” (Oscar Mondadori Accademia) by Marco Crescenzi, research director at the Istituto Superiore di Sanità and professor of scientific research methodology at Tor Vergata University, starts from this assumption. For the author, “with Homo sapiens nature is far from having created a perfect machine: it has only produced one adequate for the needs of survival and propagation. In principle, we can be improved”. By recounting the successes of molecular biology and the risks that accompany them, the experiments that have created “enhanced” animals, stronger and capable of living well and longer, Crescenzi invites us to think about the future of humanity. If today we can modify DNA and chemically synthesize it with the sequence we desire, the revolution in molecular biology “has given us the possibility of implementing a special form of therapy, called gene therapy. This was born as a response to genetic diseases, such as muscular dystrophies – he explains – that is, those caused by hereditary DNA defects. It has the aim of replacing or repairing the gene that causes the pathology, which is otherwise often incurable”. But gene therapy is however subject to a restriction: “it must not modify the DNA of the germ line (which has the aim of perpetuating the species) to prevent any related errors from being transmitted to future generations”. It is therefore a vision of progress that entails ethical problems. Genetic manipulation techniques are essentially not infallible. Yet, the author points out, the scientific and public debate has moved from a position of prohibition to “when”, “why” and “to what extent”. Crescenzi leaves it to the reader to draw conclusions, inviting reflection. “If we decide to take this path, perhaps one day Icarus won’t need wax to grow his wings.”
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