Gene Editing - Political cartoon

Gene Editing -Jeff Danziger

        In this cartoon by Jeff Danziger, the cartoonist covey the message that gene editing is crossing a moral barrier. The artist uses rough lines sketching out the scene focusing on the two characters. The white background emphasizes the letter “Gene Editing?” in the artwork. Since there’s not much color in the cartoon, it makes people focus on the two characters. And the pregnant woman takes the majority part of the canvas. There are only two messages in the cartoon, “Gene Editing?” and “STET”, which directly show the audience that this cartoon is about the genetically modified child. The picture shows a mother pulling up the shirt with a nurse writing on the pregnant belly "STET". The white coat and a badge of nursing on the shoulder of the woman on the left represents the nurse. At the same time, the badge refers to the medical standards of caring for doctors and nurses. Instead of using a stethoscope, the nurse is writing on the pregnant woman’s belly said “STET.” STET means proofreading markups and no correction required or do not correct. This message is contradicted to the gene editing. The mother in the picture questioned "Gene Editing?" and the nurse wrote "STET". Which shows that genetically modified children are against natural laws and there's no need to change the genes of the babies. This cartoon is about the recent news about Chinese scientist He Jiankui edited to babies' genes to prevent HIV infection. The scientific community was shocked because they believe this experiment is against ethical and scientific protocols. As the cartoonist portrayed in this picture, he supports the idea that it is inhuman to change the babies' gene and they have the right to know the parents biologically and socially.