full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Paul Knoepfler: The ethical dilemma of designer babies

Unscramble the Blue Letters


Now, before I go on, some of you may hold up your hands and say, "Stop, Paul, wait a minute. Wouldn't that be illegal? You can't just go off and create a designer baby." And in fact, to some extent, you're right. In some countries, you couldn't do that. But in many other countries, including my country, the US, there's actually no law on this, so in theory, you could do it. And there was another dpvneeemolt this year that resonates in this area, and that happened not so far from here over in the UK. And the UK ttaaniiolldry has been the strictest cnoutry when it comes to human genetic modification. It was illegal there, but just a few months ago, they carved out an exception to that rule. They peassd a new law allowing the croatien of genetically modified humans with the nolbe goal of trying to prevent a rare kind of genetic disease. But still I think in combination these events are pushing us further towards an acceptance of human gnteeic mcatdoifoiin.

Open Cloze


Now, before I go on, some of you may hold up your hands and say, "Stop, Paul, wait a minute. Wouldn't that be illegal? You can't just go off and create a designer baby." And in fact, to some extent, you're right. In some countries, you couldn't do that. But in many other countries, including my country, the US, there's actually no law on this, so in theory, you could do it. And there was another ___________ this year that resonates in this area, and that happened not so far from here over in the UK. And the UK _____________ has been the strictest _______ when it comes to human genetic modification. It was illegal there, but just a few months ago, they carved out an exception to that rule. They ______ a new law allowing the ________ of genetically modified humans with the _____ goal of trying to prevent a rare kind of genetic disease. But still I think in combination these events are pushing us further towards an acceptance of human _______ ____________.

Solution


  1. noble
  2. traditionally
  3. passed
  4. development
  5. country
  6. creation
  7. modification
  8. genetic

Original Text


Now, before I go on, some of you may hold up your hands and say, "Stop, Paul, wait a minute. Wouldn't that be illegal? You can't just go off and create a designer baby." And in fact, to some extent, you're right. In some countries, you couldn't do that. But in many other countries, including my country, the US, there's actually no law on this, so in theory, you could do it. And there was another development this year that resonates in this area, and that happened not so far from here over in the UK. And the UK traditionally has been the strictest country when it comes to human genetic modification. It was illegal there, but just a few months ago, they carved out an exception to that rule. They passed a new law allowing the creation of genetically modified humans with the noble goal of trying to prevent a rare kind of genetic disease. But still I think in combination these events are pushing us further towards an acceptance of human genetic modification.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
designer babies 10
genetic modification 8
genetically modified 5
crispr technology 4
human genetic 4
designer baby 3
genetic modifications 2
human embryos 2
gm kids 2
health care 2
modified humans 2
swiss army 2
army knife 2
baby number 2
stuffy nose 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
human genetic modification 3
genetically modified humans 2
swiss army knife 2

Important Words


  1. acceptance
  2. allowing
  3. area
  4. baby
  5. carved
  6. combination
  7. countries
  8. country
  9. create
  10. creation
  11. designer
  12. development
  13. disease
  14. events
  15. exception
  16. extent
  17. fact
  18. genetic
  19. genetically
  20. goal
  21. hands
  22. happened
  23. hold
  24. human
  25. humans
  26. illegal
  27. including
  28. kind
  29. law
  30. minute
  31. modification
  32. modified
  33. months
  34. noble
  35. passed
  36. paul
  37. prevent
  38. pushing
  39. rare
  40. resonates
  41. rule
  42. strictest
  43. theory
  44. traditionally
  45. uk
  46. wait
  47. year