The moral mozzie minefield

A powerful new genetic technique funded by the Gates Foundation could exterminate all mozzies. But as much as they peeve off, can we play Aero-God ... get it 😂?

Scratch that itch

A fascinating Washington Post article by Dino Grandoni (1) got me thinking about humanity's oldest nemesis – the mosquito.

Life's deadliest creature, across history, malaria has killed billions, claiming 600,000 people in 2023 alone, mostly in Africa.

Grandoni quotes the great naturalist E.O. Wilson who once declared he'd "gladly throw the switch and be the executioner himself" for malaria-carrying mozzies.

Well happy days E.O., turns out we might actually be able to do exactly that.

Gene drives: dodging Darwin

Since the 2010s, scientists have developed something called gene drives – genetic tools that basically cheat evolution's rules.

Normally, genes have a 50-50 chance of being passed to offspring.

But gene drives insert special genetic machinery that copies itself during reproduction, rigging the genetic game.

Rather than it being a coin-flip, this particular gene will be inherited by nearly all offspring.

Target Malaria, funded by the Gates Foundation, has created a genetic modification that renders female mosquitoes infertile.

Release enough modified males into the wild and theoretically you could crash entire mosquito populations. Take that bloodsuckers!

But should we... ?

Ugh here we go... ethics!

Recent discussions held at New York's Hastings Centre for Bioethics and Arizona State University concluded that "deliberate full extinction might occasionally be acceptable, but only extremely rarely”.

The researchers worry we're playing god with consequences we can't predict. This raises all sorts of deeply complex questions.

What if mosquitoes actually serve important ecological roles we don't understand? What if eliminating one species opens the door for something worse?

Surely in a world already facing unprecedented and accelerating species extinction, adding pesky mozzies to the list won't make that much difference?

As Grandoni notes, the bioethicists fingered the New World screwworm as "a compelling candidate for total eradication”.

Not surprising, given it is a flesh-eating parasitic fly which lays eggs in the wounds of humans and livestock, one bite can cause a slow and painful death.

Beyond this it seems to play little role in ecosystems, and virtually never gets invited to parties.

Location, location, elimination

It is worth noting that most opposition to mosquito eradication comes from people who don't live with daily malaria threats.

Paul Ndebele, a bioethicist from Zimbabwe who once rushed his hallucinating son to hospital with malaria, notes that critics "are not based in Africa”.

Many argue that when your child is dying from a mosquito bite, philosophical debates about species preservation give off a "first-world-ethics" vibe.

A sharper focus?

Perhaps the solution isn't total extinction but smarter targeting.

Scientists suggest going after the malaria parasite itself, rather than its ubiquitous uber.

After all, there are over 3,500 mosquito species – eliminating them all would require thousands of unique gene drives.

This would be a "herculean undertaking" according to Gregory Kaebnick, a senior research scholar at Hastings.

Exterminate every mozzie? Ethically and scientifically, that's a tough one. But I think we can all agree, screw you screwworm!

Time for me to buzz off,

Adam S

(1) For Grandoni’s Washington Post article, click here