About a week ago, a Chinese molecular geneticist announced to the scientific community that he had secretly developed the "first-gene edited babies". The entire scientific community was outraged and criticized the geneticist deeming his work unethical. This scientist apparently knew that there will be controversy regarding gene editing but he did it anyway and claims that the twin babies that had their genes edited to avoid HIV infection from their father, are healthy babies.
I would have to agree with the scientific community that what he did was wrong, especially doing it secretly. However, part of me, playing devil's advocate, would like to know what other people's opinion on this case. Do you guys think it is unethical for us to tap into gene editing on humans? How would we ever know if something works if it was never attempted?
A few years ago, there was a committee that came together and actually approved gene editing on somatic cells in order to treat certain disease such as hemophilia. Do you think that this is something that should be allowed? Where should we draw the line when it comes to gene-editing?
https://www.sciencenewsforstudents.org/article/scientist-reports-first-gene-editing-humans
https://www.sciencenewsforstudents.org/article/expert-panel-approves-human-gene-editing
I believe that this is a HUGE thing to come up in the scientific community. I believe the developing an entire human is ethically wrong. Ethically, we are unable to understand what potential health risks that would come up with a genetically modified child, as well as we are unaware of the social implications that would come. The child's life would not be normal in any way shape or form. Family dynamics would change since the child would not be 100% the parents, rebellion could occur, bullying may prevail, and so many more societal implications would cause a sad life for the child ahead. Also another argument may say that creating an entire human is "playing god" and overstepping natural biological order. It is one thing to be able to help a child eliminate a potential life threatening disease from their genome and another to create the entire human to your liking and your standards then throw them into our society.
ReplyDeleteDaar, J., Amato, P., Benward, J., Collins, L. R., Davis, J., Francis, L., . . . Tipton, S. (2016). Human somatic cell nuclear transfer and reproductive cloning: An Ethics Committee opinion. Fertility and Sterility, 105(4). doi:10.1016/j.fertnstert.2015.12.041
This is a very interesting post! I also shared a blog on this subject as I think the use of CRISPR to modify humans is a very significant issue that requires discussion and increased regulations. I personally think that CRISPR editing on humans should be allowed in the future, but with very specific regulations in place in order to ensure the beneficence potential outweighs the possibility for malfeasance. I also think the researcher He Jiankui that performed the experiment on the twin babies was not acting ethically as a researcher due to his lack of regulations and his odd choice in manipulating the babies' HIV resistance. I think we should draw the line between conditions that require immediate treatment and conditions that are not necessarily harmful for an individual or a population in the future.
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