Professor Hank Greely weighs in on how genetic engineering could help end epidemics normally spread by mosquitos for The San Jose Mercury News.

The genetically engineered mosquitoes now living in a Southern California basement lab, secured behind five locked doors, prove that it may be possible to wipe out malaria.

Now we must decide whether or not we should do it.

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“Using gene drive vastly multiplies our power to change the genomes of species around the world, whether domesticated or wild,” said Hank Greely, director of Stanford’s Center for Law and the Biosciences.

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The new mosquito falls into the overlap area of three federal agencies: the Food and Drug Administration, the Department of Agriculture and the Environmental Protection Agency, Greely said.

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“Overall, we have three agencies and multiple statutes coming into play,” wrote Greely and University of Wisconsin law professor Alta Charo in an upcoming issue of the journal American Journal of Bioethics. “This might be reassuring, but it also may mean there will be a morass each time a critter seems to fall between the cracks.”