Today, once marginal far-right political parties are supported by a growing proportion of the electorate. Some far-right figures insist that foreigners are and will always remain fundamentally different from natives; others do not hesitate to describe them as belonging to inferior races. Many far-right parties also prescribe gender roles according to traditional norms. Meanwhile, on what may seem like a different planet, scientists study how genes impact human beings.

Over the past decade, a new generation of precise and efficient gene editing techniques has brought new urgency and attention to the discussion of the ethics of human enhancement. In 2015, gene editing research in non-viable human embryos signaled that human applications were on the horizon which, in theory, could be aimed beyond disease treatment toward improvements upon normal human traits.