The Perils and Promises of Gene-Drive Technology

What if, with a wave of the wand, we could eliminate some of the world’s most devastating causes of illness and death? First, we might fight over which of our many maladies causes the most harm. Cardiovascular disease kills more people every year than any other, but it almost always develops over a lifetime: heart attacks may be sudden, but their causes are not. H.I.V./AIDS is another worthy candidate; it claims more than a million lives each year, and nearly forty million people are currently infected.