Historic Conway Hall in Red Lion Square, London, hosted the sold-out British Humanist Association’s 9th Annual Darwin Day Lecture. Professor Armand Leroi, Imperial College, tackled the fascinating subject of mutations, raising some controversy, and BHA Vice President Professor Richard Dawkins returned to chair the event. Professor Dawkins introduced Professor Leroi as one of the leading scientists in his field, mentioning the plethora of publications and broadcasts including on the BBC and Channel 4 that he has done on the subject of human mutations – and what to do about them.
Professor Leroi explained that humans are afflicted by a continual storm of mutations, inherited from their parents and some dominant mutations which occur in the sperm or egg. Individually rare, these mutations are collectively responsible for thousands of genetic disorders. Professor Leroi explained that most mutations are not good. He described human beings as complex and almost perfect machines, so that when mutations happen they generally cause a detriment rather than have a positive effect. Although mutations are, of course, vital to evolution, the ‘good’ ones are rare.
The lecture then explored whether it would be worth paying to have your genome mapped – can we predict if mutations we have will cause us ill or harm in our lives. And you should have your lover’s genome mapped? Professor Leroi suggested that, at the moment, if we want to looked at our genome in order to make predictions about our health in the future, it was only worth looking at our offspring, at embryos, which are unique and may have inherited mutations from both parents, both of which would be required to cause disease.
Professor Leroi was keen to speak from a rational, scientific perspective, rather than discussing the ethics of searching for mutations in our own, or our offspring’s genomes. However, he did tackle the question of terminating pregnancies, or destroying unwanted foetuses in the IVF process, because they have or may have in the future congenital disease or other disorder. Professor Leroi took a largely dispassionate and rational view when tackling the issue of eugenics, saying that large proportions of pregnancies are already terminated on grounds that the foetuses have severe disabilities caused by mutations, and so suggested that society would not think it unethical to screen embryos for such disorders in the future.
Questions from the floor after the lecture explored a whole range of questions arising from the lecture, from we could trust governments to hold such information on the population, to the effects of cousin marriage on the likelihood of genetic disorder and whether genetic researchers could do more themselves to look at the ethics of the ground-breaking science they are exploring.
Listen to The Pod Delusion recording of the whole lecture.
There are still tickets available for our Shelley Lecture in Oxford. Professor Richard Dawkins will chair Ann Wroe’s lecture on ‘The Necessity of Atheism – Then and Now’. Buy tickets.
Notes
The BHA hosted the lecture in conjunction with the South Place Ethical Society, at Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, London, WC1R 4RL.
The Darwin Day Lecture is part of the BHA’s annual lecture programme, which also includes the Voltaire, Holyoake, Shelley and Bentham lectures.
For information about future BHA events, visit humanists.uk/meet-up/events
The British Humanist Association (BHA) is the national charity representing and supporting the non-religious and campaigning for an end to religious privilege and discrimination based on religion or belief.