• ‘We as a species need to come to terms’ with CRISPR technology as China...
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https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/21/china-awaits-third-genetically-modified-baby-amid-questions-of-crisprs-ethics.html After a Chinese scientist last year made history by using CRISPR technology to genetically modify two newborns, the scientific community is now struggling to grapple with the ethics of human germline editing as another woman pregnant with a gene-edited baby is soon due to give birth.
Not sure what there is to come to terms with. Gene editing is just another step forward. I can't read the article over the adblocker message but I am curious on how things went with animal testing and any long term issues that came with it.
People are afraid of genetically perfect humans because that means they'll be inferior
When gene edited babies reproduce as an adult will they pass on the alternations? If so, it's a matter of time before our entire species has the alternations. Rich and poor. We have to think about the species as a whole. Will gene edited babies be stronger, live longer, eat/drink less? Can we make it possible for us to have photosynthesis? What about breathing less? Can we edit our genes to be immune to space radiation? How about radiation in general? What about cancer? How about mental illness? So many possibilities here.
We don't know what long term affects gene editing can have. but since china doesn't seem to give a fuck about that we better hope its only minor.
Sooooooo no animal trials? That's just perfect.
Oh I'm not saying I share that fear, I believe it's the next step in human evolution. I was just saying there's people out in the world who are afraid of it, there's always going to be people afraid of change.
Doesn't matter if your ready for it. The Catholic church wasn't ready for the printing press and that didn't stop people from reinterpreting the bible. It's going to happen either in a dingy warehouse or a large state funded research facility and no amount of begging people to not to open pandoras box is going to stop them from opening that box.
I thought we were supposed to be able to edit existing people too, at least eventually? Or was that something else? I remember us talking about splicing and how some people might be like the splicers in Batman beyond
And that's what terrifies me. Because the CCP has zero ethics whatsoever. I can only dread what kind of sickly genetic abominations China is going to be churning out in the coming decades.
People are afraid of the implications of bridging a further gap between the financially elite and regular people. What chance do you have when Johnny Two-Shoes' parents opted for the best possible genetics package and you're a lowly natural-born? You thought we were still having trouble stamping out the last bits of racism and sexism in the first world? Boy howdy, you better get ready for a whole new dimension because it's coming in hot.
I mean, genetic lottery is preferrable to "more money=better genes"
The problem is that this is coming no matter what. The rich will do as always and bypass whatever laws and bans are put in place.
The rich will make themselves into super humans and cement their position in society forever. Good luck competing against big money and superior intelligence.
It's really not. If we can eliminate disease through genetic modification, we should. more money already equals more power, the rich are basically superhuman in their capability to do certain things in society, from their elite educations to friction-less movement through many, many situations that would take a normal person a huge amount of time or effort. That power dynamic is a flat-out reality for the moment, but if we can do something to improve the lives of ordinary people, we should
I'd rather everyone have good genes than deprive others of the life they should have instead of what they could have.
Ya'll realize that if gene editing is super illegal that it'll just result in only the fantastically wealthy getting altered, right? And what are you going to do if you catch a super kid? Kill them? Imprison them for existing?
Please no Gattaca future, please.
china gave a lot of fucks the problem is that there's more emphasis on being the first and making china great than there is on serious ethical questioning. China absolutely didn't approve of what happened, but their own policies created the culture that encouraged it to happen nonetheless.
Too late, China wants it. Who's ready for the generically perfect Chinese super-elites? Throw in some genetically perfect movie star babies too while you're at it because no matter the legality, the rich are going to find a way to do it and you can't exactly justify killing a genetically altered baby just because the process that created them was illegal.
CRISPR has issues due to getting targeted by the immune system. Then there's the fact that transgenics as a whole are quite random, because eucaryotic life in general, and animals in particular, are chock-full of regulative DNA segments that we haven't figured out. So yeah, gene therapy to prevent diseases? Go for it. Genetically modified elites? Define "better". Because in biology there is no objective "better". Only "better at the current conditions". Expect a plethora of issues on GM people, because we went too fast.
Biggest problem with gene editing that's not ethical/moral in nature is that traits that are perceived advantageous and infused into lots of people will cause genetic diversity to decrease significantly and thus decrease our robust species' resistance to disease.
People always make the argument that the rich already have an advantage, as if the existence of a problem means you might as well magnify said problem by several orders of magnitude.
https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/130/f7c25b6c-b0a6-4d8d-a797-63a066ea2568/image.png my dude's sitting here already looking like he's got some genetic modifications
To answer the first question, if it will be illegal, it will be a sort of thing that's hard to hide, right? The second question is precisely why the situation is deeply unpleasant, because it goes against the usual order. If kids can be manufactured, then that kinda calls for new set of moral and ethical norms, doesn't it?
I cant see gene modification giving more avantage to kids from wealthy families than they already get through access to good education, having an easier access to technology, living in stable wealthy areas, eating better food, having parents pushing them to be successful from a young age etc all the already existing factors creating an opportunity gap between working class and elite kids. Genes can affect your performances, but outside of the case of low functionning genetic deseases, i see the environnement as always having a much bigger impact. Ofc it probably can give still you some avantage and from an ethics standpoints that's enough to be worrying. But with my limited knowledge on brain developpement, I absolutely see having a "good brain" as more something you developped, not winning a genetic lottery. I agree that it's not something we can stop. It's probably going to be something we hear about a lot in a couple decades.
No, it's more that the problem isn't new or rooted in technology and you can't solve it by halting scientific progress.
To be fair, our genetic diversity is already kinda shot, at least compared to other animals. And CRISPR isn't going to give everyone the same DNA sequence. It's not like cloning people. In fact, due to CRISPR causing a number of other gene modifications while trying to do a targeting edit, it's not unlikely that CRISPR might INCREASE genetic diversity.
well duh, what did media tell us would happen? I'm joking and all, but I can sadly see that happening...
This is such a vapid article designed to sidestep the larger ethical issue of genetic modification. Once its in the genepool, we lose control. It can mutate freely and this can easily backfire on us because we do do not have long term studies for a long term consequence. There legitimate attempts to study the generational effect but they only just started. People arguing for a ban might be using some form of simplistic ideas but there's a grain of truth to it. GMOs, as 'wonderful' as they are, are locked behind corporate monopolies, have reduced food diversity and also are not healthy for us. In the sense that often times the enhancements include increased sugar to make the food 'taste better' which has a negative impact on our health.
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