The next step in human evolution – designing babies?

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CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) is a method of editing genomes, such as human genomes, that can be done in a lab. But how does it work? In order to modify a genome, you damage the DNA and then instead of letting the natural repair processes do their work, we trick the DNA in order to make an edit that we want – we squeeze a specific piece of DNA we want to add in the centre and our genome is modified.

The most controversial aspect of CRISPR is the fact that we can use it to edit human genomes – in fact, some scientists have already done it, sparking outrage all around the globe. Some argue that CRISPR is the next ‘natural’ step in evolution – we can now design people not to die of heart attacks or not to suffer from Alzheimer’s, wouldn’t we want that? A healthy, perfectly happy society? Well, as every great tool, it can be misused. CRISPR allows scientist to design a genome – imagine picking your future child’s height, hair colour and the shape of their eyes. Can we really interrupt the natural process of reproduction and modify human genomes in a lab? Most of the concerns are ethical, after all how can we justify e.g. wiping out a whole species because we feel like it? But what a lot of people do not realise is that we cannot be sure whether using CRISPR will bring unwanted consequences in the future. Can we really risk it?

There have been reports that scientist in Shenzhen under He Jiankui have already started experimenting – supposedly, they modified human embryos to eliminate a gene called CCR5, which would make the offspring resistant to HIV, smallpox and cholera. A clinical document was found containing those claims, but we are not sure whether the experiment has produced a living birth. He Jiankui declined to comment when asked. But what we do know for sure is that the birth of the first clinically modified human will be a breakthrough point in not only the history of science, but in the history of the human species.

 

Sources:

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/612458/exclusive-chinese-scientists-are-creating-crispr-babies/

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/11/ethics-aside-does-crispr-baby-experiment-make-scientific-sense

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/mrs-bulletin/news/crispr-implications-for-materials-science

 

4 thoughts on “The next step in human evolution – designing babies?

  1. Kogowska Aleksandra says:

    Wow! Julia that topic is really interesting. I wonder what the future will bring us. Maybe designing babies will be as normal as having one. For me that would be too much. We can not interfere in our lives like that !

  2. Drapiński Piotr says:

    This is really a very controversial issue that we will need to face in nearby future. Technology is rapidly growing and with that new dilemmas are constantly being created. In my opinion it is a good step forward, as a lot of issues that we are facing right now, when it comes to medicine overall will be resolved, fx. genetical disorders, different illnesses etc. Although this process needs to be strictly regulated in my opinion to not let rich people use that in their favour.

  3. Słowik Tomasz says:

    And what comes next after that? Who knows… The possible future might be just like in Huxley’s book “Brave new world” where you develop children basically just like you develop a product. You start at the genetic level so that the future youth will meet the cretaria of those who are in charge. I do think that this has to be strictly regulated so nothing like this happens.

  4. Marchelewska Karolina says:

    The topic surely started with trying to modify genoms in order to destroy powerful diseases which can be annihilation of human kind. But now it started go more than that and is it right or bad? As Tomasz said in previous comment will we get to the point where we develop children like product? I personally think that this is next step in deepen the gap between rich and poor societies. The technique, if developed, will be surely expensive one which would have an influence on society.

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