People are likely going to be up in arms over news that a rogue Chinese scientist has allegedly (for the first-time ever) successfully used the CRISPR gene-editing technique to create a designer baby. A set of female twins in fact. Religious groups will likely object to the God like power that scientists now wield while ethicists will likely lament the potential for undesirable traits to be eliminated.
But when you dive deeper into the news is what was done really all that bad? After all, the modification wasn’t done to remove undesirable traits. The hair and eye color wasn’t altered. Down Syndrome and autism weren’t rooted out. It wasn’t given super strength or smarts. At the end of the day there would be no discernible difference between these babies and any other. Except for one key difference. These particular babies can’t get AIDS.
As the New York Times reports, “The researcher, He Jiankui, said that he had altered a gene in the embryos, before having them implanted in the mother’s womb, with the goal of making the babies resistant to infection with H.I.V. He has not published the research in any journal and did not share any evidence or data that definitively proved he had done it.
But his previous work is known to many experts in the field, who said — many with alarm — that it was entirely possible he had.”
Now I get the obvious concerns but if this is what we’re going to use the technology for, if the usage is purely benevolent, and done to eradicate or prevent diseases, then shouldn’t we be all in? As long as there are safeguards in place and we agree on appropriate uses shouldn’t we be heralding this decision instead of deriding it?
I think so. Especially when you consider that we may even need this technology to save us all– by somehow making us all resistant to the damaging effects of climate change.
Is creating a designer baby the Greatest Idea Ever?
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