(NPR) – China imprisoned the scientist, He Jiankui, for three years for violating medical regulations.

Fast forward to today: Mainstream scientific organizations are encouraging very careful basic research to explore gene-editing and human reproduction. But they still warn any attempts to create more genetically modified children anytime soon should remain strictly off limits.

Now, however, Silicon Valley venture capitalists, futurists, East Coast entrepreneurs, and pronatalists — who fear falling birth rates pose an existential threat to the human race — are eager to push the technology forward. And that’s kindling both great hopes and intense fears. (Read More)