Matthew Liao, director of New York University’s bioethics program, has a rather … unique idea to combat global warming climate change climate disruption: Make environmentally friendly humans:
… one of Liao’s ideas is shrinking ourselves, which he says will reduce our environmental footprint.“Reducing height by 15cm would mean a reduction in mass of around 25 percent,” he explained, which means that “less” of you has to be transported and fed. He added, “You can fit in airplanes better!”
The professor elaborated to The Atlantic that this shrinking could be done via a technique called “preimplantation via genetic diagnosis,” in which embryos would be selected to implant based on height. It could also be accomplished with hormone treatment or gene imprinting.
A quite interesting take for a bioethicist, wouldn’t you say? But Liao rationalizes:
“The reason we are even considering these solutions is to prevent climate change, which is a really serious problem, and which might affect the well being of millions of people including the child,” Liao said. “And so in that context, if on balance human engineering is going to promote the well being of that particular child, then you might be able to justify the solution to the child.”
Less controversial is his suggestion of a pill, or patch (like a nicotine patch), which would make a person nauseous or outright sick if he/she attempts to eat any meat. Liao says that this would be … “liberty enhancing.”
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