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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsScientists successfully genetically modify human embryos, allowing for editing of babies’ genes
Ethical and medical concerns abound about the study, which had been rumoured to be taking place in secret
Chinese scientists have successfully edited the genes of human embryos for the first time ever, confirming rumours that secret genetic experiments had been happening in the country and prompting fears that the discovery could lead to a new kind of eugenics.
The researchers were able to successfully modify a specific gene responsible for a potentially fatal blood disorder. But they say that problems encountered during the testing mean that it is unlikely to be used more widely in the immediate future.
The technique could one day be used to edit out fatal and destructive genetic diseases. But others worry that it is unethical and could wreak unknown havoc on the human gene pool.
Using non-viable embryos obtained from fertility clinics, a group of scientists led by Junjiu Huang, a researcher in genetics at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, managed to inject embryos with an enzyme that can be programmed to target a specific gene. Along with another molecule that is also added to the embryo, that injection can repair or replace genes that are considered to be a problem.
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It had to be China. God only knows what heinous experiments are gong on behind locked lab doors over there.
Erich Bloodaxe BSN
(14,733 posts)If we can edit out or fix the genes tied to various genetic disorders, we can save a lot of families a lot of grief. WITHOUT simply tossing the embryo, which various people liken to abortion.
It's not unethical - it's a tool that can be used ethically or unethically. You can use it to save people from a lifetime of grief, or, if you WANT to be unethical, you could create your 'Brave New World' underclass of betas and gammas to do all the work while the 1%er alphas lounge about.
Surya Gayatri
(15,445 posts)Erich Bloodaxe BSN
(14,733 posts)Your betas are your 'professional' class, your gammas are the working poor, and your alphas are the 1%ers.
Surya Gayatri
(15,445 posts)justiceischeap
(14,040 posts)Scientifically this is all wonderful and fascinating but how do you stop this from being used for nefarious reasons? For example, I now see researchers being hired to see if there's a gay gene and if found, it being eradicated.
Also, at some point we have to decided how much illness we want to stamp out. The earth can barely handle the amount of people we have now with nature taking its course with illness and disease--how does she handle people not dying of natural causes?
KittyWampus
(55,894 posts)GreatGazoo
(3,937 posts)"Editing" sounds too precise for GM which is more like billiards than movie making. You shoot at one ball, you move 4 others.
"If mistakes are made, they won't just be mistakes in the child that is born. But if that child [is a girl and] has children down the line, those children will inherit the mitochondria from that child, and we'll have introduced new genetic diseases into the human population," Green says.
That's why this sort of thing has always been off-limits even banned in many countries, according to Marcy Darnovsky of the Center for Genetics and Society.
Pursuing such techniques, Darnovsky says, "really would cross this bright line that's been established and has been observed by scientists around the world. And that bright line says: 'We're not going to make genetic changes that are inheritable that are passed down from one generation to the next.' "
http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/10/09/229167219/proposed-treatment-to-fix-genetic-diseases-raising-ethics-issues
Genetic billiards.
Surya Gayatri
(15,445 posts)Or perhaps a genetic crapshoot.