Human Nature

The documentary is about CRISPR. A defence mechanism bacteria use against viruses turns into a tool for cutting and pasting DNA in a laboratory. It is cheap, fast and within reach of almost anyone. The film shows the science first: a child with sickle cell disease, families waiting on a treatment. Then it opens the question. If the same tool can correct a disease, it can also set the height or the intelligence of a child not yet born. Who decides, and where does it stop. Adam Bolt directs; a hundred and seven minutes. Jennifer Doudna, George Church and David Baltimore are among the speakers; Doudna took the 2020 Nobel in Chemistry for the CRISPR work. The film was made in 2019, straight after the argument about edited babies.