Gene drives are natural or artificial processes that favor the inheritance of certain genes throughout a population. Target Malaria is developing gene drives to change the genomes of malaria-carrying mosquitoes to eradicate the disease.

Gene drives have also been suggested for reducing wild-animal suffering. For example, transhumanist philosopher David Pearce proposes CRISPR-based gene drives for promoting low-pain alleles in sexually reproducing wild animals.^[1] The leader of the MIT Media Lab’s Sculpting Evolution group Kevin M. Esvelt also has written favorably about engineered gene drives for reducing wild-animal suffering.^[2]

External links

Sculpting Evolution. Many additional resources on this topic.