Well, gene editing is now quite real where not a day goes by when something new is reported about the advances - - and moral and ethical issues - - of gene editing.
I first learned about the gene editing tool Crispr, short for clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats, last May when Wired published a video with biologist Neville Sanjana. Sanjana explained the tool, first to a seven-year-old, followed by a fourteen-year-old, a college student, a grad student, and finally a Crispr expert. It's fascinating technology with far-ranging implications and consequences for the human race.
Gene editing holds great promise for preventing the heritability of many diseases caused by DNA mutations, such as autism, diabetes, and cancer.
The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday on the latest breakthroughs in gene editing in viable human embryos, as well as the race to patent and profit from the market opportunities ahead.
"The technology has sparked a rush of investment into companies poised to take advantage of Crispr. Hundreds of millions of dollars have been invested in for-profit startups founded by scientists whose academic institutions are now warring with each other over the patent."The moral and ethical issues center on "germ-line" editing of the genes in sperm, eggs and embryos. Such editing not only alters the DNA of an individual, but its offspring and future generations, creating legal issues around consent of the unborn. It also presents the future of "designer babies" where physical attributes like hair and eye color, and height and strength, become genetic choices.
Laws governing the U.S. Food and Drug Administration prohibit the funding and testing of "germ-line" editing, but other countries are not bound by American laws or ethical standards.
Wealth will drive the new world of privilege and access to gene editing and embryo modification.
Welcome to Gattaca.
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