It would be easy for bioethicists, to ignore attacks on critical race theory—not in our wheelhouse, too politically charged, and so on. But the attacks on CRT are squarely relevant to our work.

I have been leading a weekly ethics class for middle- and early-high school-aged youth. My preconceived assumptions about the abilities of adolescents to discuss bioethics issues have been dispelled by the depth and nuance of their insights.

In response to news of the world’s first babies born in China from gene-edited embryos, Sam Sternberg, a CRISPR/Cas9 researcher at Columbia University, spoke for many when he said “I’ve...