NYU Prof: Fight climate change with hormone treatments on small children, ‘closes the growth plates’
Interviewed on the Sunrise Weekend morning show, NYU Professor Matthew Liao promotes hormone treatments on children ‘when their small’ to close their ‘growth plates’ and thus stunt child growth. Professor Liao says this helps fight climate change since ‘larger people consume more energy than smaller people.’
Weekend Sunrise
Australia
September 30, 1015
PROFESSOR MATTHEW LIAO: “There’s this technique called preimplantation genetic diagnosis. And, what you do there is you can — it’s a technique that’s used for — sort of for fertility clinics.
HOST ANDREW O”KEEFE: “Right. So, IVF treatments and things?”
LIAO: “IVF treatments and you can get rid of — you can sort of detect sort of genetic diseases. So the idea is that maybe you can use the technique like that to select smaller children.”
O’KEEFE: “Okay. So a range of potential options that you select the genetic material that is bound to lead to smaller children.”
LIAO: “That’s right. That’s right.”
O’KEEFE: “But, it requires in vitro fertilization?”
LIAO: “That’s right. So that would require in vitro fertilization. Another possibility is you can use hormone treatments. So these are — we already give hormone treatments to children who are expected to be very very tall, excessively tall.
O’KEEFE: “Oh, okay.”
LIAO: “And, so you can give them –”
O’KEEFE: “You give them the hormone treatment in utero now do we?”
LIAO: “No, you give them when they’re small. And, so it closes the growth plates.”
HOST MONIQUE WRIGHT: “With the idea that smaller people would be more — or have a smaller carbon footprint?”
O’KEEFE: “Would they consume less?”
LIAO: “That’s right. So, other things being equal larger people consume more energy than smaller people. They also, for example, it takes more energy to transport larger people. They — you need more clothes — fabrics to clothes larger people rather than smaller people. They wear out shoes, carpets, et cetera, et cetera more than smaller people. So think of the life time carbon footprints. That’s quite a lot.”
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Background:
Full Audio Available:
NYU Professor Center for Bioethics Matthew Liao ([email protected]) proposes ‘breeding people to be shorter, something Liao says could reduce our carbon footprint’ to fight global warming.
‘Liao proposed was an induced allergy to meat, to help people reduce their consumption of animals.’
‘The last modification that Liao talks about: empathy. Liao’s idea is to give hormones like oxytocin and seratonin to people, and to perhaps decrease someone’s testosterone.’
