THE IDEA BEHIND OFF TARGET
When I’m considering ideas for my books, real life issues are what grab me first.
Dangerous behaviours, imminent disasters, risky innovations that hover in a not-too-distant future. Then comes the what-if: the hook.
I knew even before my first novel, The Waiting Rooms, was published that I wanted to write about genetic technologies next. The idea for Off Target came when I learned how genetic screening and editing may revolutionise the way we have babies. And how soon this might happen. Because the science is moving much faster than regulation or public debate.
I’ve been enthralled by the rapid advances in genetics that have enabled us to decipher the living world’s biological code, helping us tackle new viruses like COVID 19, as well as preventing incurable diseases such as Huntington’s.
But I am equally apprehensive about other applications of this technology and the widely-differing opinions and values being deployed to guide those. History shows we are often ill-equipped to understand the longer term consequences of our scientific ambitions or prevent their malevolent manipulation. Pivotal discoveries like the steam engine and electricity, computing and nuclear power have transformed and also blighted our planet and species.
The desire to reproduce is, for the majority of humans, a primal urge that we share with all creatures: the in-built drive to pass on our genes. And yet infertility levels in men and women continue to rise, each year, across all continents, irrespective of income levels or education.
This has inspired the development of a raft of assisted reproduction technologies and a booming fertility market, offering hope for those who are struggling to conceive.
IVF, once seen by some as monstrous, has normalised our views of conception outside the human body, for those that can afford it.
Egg and sperm donation are practically routine.
Demand for these treatments keeps growing, despite the physical and emotional challenges they present, not to mention the whopping price-tag. Would-be parents are prepared to put themselves through months, and in many cases, years of gruelling procedures in their quest to have a child.
And to do whatever it takes, to give that child the best start in life.
But, when it comes to rewriting our own biological code by gene editing human embryos, even the scientific community is divided.
As historian Niall Ferguson said: the only law of history is the law of unintended consequences. And it is these inadvertent impacts, the ethical dilemmas and pitfalls that I wanted to explore in Off Target.
So I wondered: how far would a person go, morally and medically, to conceive?
What sacrifices might they be prepared to make, or what rules to break, to have their own healthy biological child?
And what might the repercussions be?
These are the questions that drove the plot for Off Target.
You can read more about the science part next.
“Renegade scientists and totalitarian loonies are not the folks most likely to abuse genetic engineering. You and I are - not because we are bad but because we want to do good.
In a world dominated by competition, parents understandably want to give their kids every advantage... The most likely way for eugenics to enter into our lives is through the front door, as nervous parents ... will fall over one another to be first to give Junior a better set of genes.”
— Arthur Kaplan, Professor of Bioethics at New York University Langone Medical Center