Abstract
The nucleic acid DNA, which contains an organism’s genetic information, consists of a four-letter alphabet that has until recently been characterized as a read-only text. The development of a quick, inexpensive DNA targeting and manipulation technique called CRISPR, pronounced “crisper,” though, has changed DNA from this arhetorical, read-only data set, as it has been characterized in the rhetoric literature to date, to a fully rhetorical text—one that can be not only read but created, interpreted, copied, altered, and stored as well. The Book of Nature, an idea with roots in antiquity but popularized during the nineteenth century, provides proof of concept in the form of an historical and theoretical context in which DNA can be viewed in this light. Once ensconced in the Book of Nature, DNA can longer be considered a code; rather, it is a text. DNA text has structural components that are similar to those of traditional text, and now, with CRISPR, it also has purposes, audiences, and stakeholders. Given the enormous potential of DNA text for both good and ill, rhetoricians of science and medicine must participate in discussions of the complex literacy, policy, and ethics issues this new form of text brings about.
Highlights
A recently developed technique for the targeting and manipulation of DNA, called “clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats” (CRISPR, pronounced “crisper”), has electrified the scientific, medical, and bioethics communities
Given the enormous potential of DNA text for both good and ill, rhetoricians of science and medicine must participate in discussions of the complex literacy, policy, and ethics issues this new form of text brings about
A 2017 genetic study of the indigenous Tsimané tribe in the Bolivian Amazon found that elderly tribe members who had high levels of parasites in their bodies—a condition that often leads to cognitive impairment—were in many cases able to retain cognitive function if they carried the genetic E4 allele (Trumble et al, 2017)
Summary
A recently developed technique for the targeting and manipulation of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid), called “clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats” (CRISPR, pronounced “crisper”), has electrified the scientific, medical, and bioethics communities. A March 2017 joint report from the U.S National Academy of Science and the U.S National Academy of Medicine has endorsed the use of CRISPR for gene targeting and manipulation. This has led directly to treatment of the embryo with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy that I mentioned above. As O’Keefe et al contend, the use of “editing”—a feature of text—as a metaphor for applications of CRISPR is unhelpful because it implies a degree of knowledge and control of DNA text that is not currently viable—a point with which I wholeheartedly agree—treating DNA as text, or at least prototext, enables us to capture CRISPR’s epistemological contingency and moral complexity more fully. The purpose of this essay is to present such a proof of concept
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