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[Music] If you could go back in time and change something about yourself before birth, what would it be? Would you change your eye color, or maybe the color of your hair? Perhaps you’d choose something a little less vain; maybe you’d boost your resistance to certain illnesses, for example.
Well, it’s too late for any of us to do this, but for our children, there may be hope. Using gene editing, we may soon be able to design the genes in our babies and select traits we want while discarding those we don’t want. The most exciting part? This future may be closer than you think.
Until recently, designer babies were a concept of science fiction, something that was only possible in movies. But now, a Chinese scientist claimed that he has created the world’s first gene-edited babies. Now that the dawn of designer babies is finally upon us, should we panic or embrace it?
The gene-editing technique CRISPR-Cas9 has revolutionized human’s ability to edit DNA, but could we take things too far? What if the embryo-editing techniques spiral out of control, allowing parents to custom-order a designer baby? How would this shape the future of the human race, and at what cost? Only time will tell.
Now, it’s a bit early to consider ordering from designer baby menu cards to choose your baby’s personality and traits in fertility clinics. But the Chinese team used the CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing technique to eliminate a single gene known as the CCR5 in human embryos for the first time. Disabling this gene would make the babies more resistant to HIV, cholera, and smallpox. The CCR5 gene codes for a protein that allows HIV, the AIDS-causing virus, to enter a cell.
According to the researchers, embryos were edited for seven couples affected by HIV, and one successful pregnancy led to the birth of twin girls from this treatment. CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing was used to modify the embryos before they were implanted into the respective mother’s uterus. Couples could choose whether to use edited or unedited embryos for pregnancy attempts. Eleven embryos were used in six attempts before the twin pregnancy was achieved. The technique could potentially prevent HIV from being passed on.
While the news is causing an outcry in the scientific community, there is no independent confirmation of the claim, and it has not been published in a journal yet. About a year ago, bioethicists did not see the widespread use of CRISPR-Cas9 in the next two decades, even for the prevention of genetic diseases, let alone for designer babies. This kind of gene editing is banned in most countries, including the US and the UK, as the technology is still in experimental stages. The DNA changes can pass to future generations, potentially with unforeseen side effects.
Genetic modification techniques could lead to the elimination of devastating genetic disorders like Parkinson’s disease and Down syndrome before a person is even born and could help families in which both parents carry genes that increase the risk of a birth defect. The removal of these genes could significantly lower the risk of genetically influenced birth defects and could eventually lead to the removal of these genes from the entire family tree over time.
However, critics warn that interfering with the blueprints of life to prenatally destroy diseases could lead to unintended genetic consequences that are even worse than whatever diseases we’re trying to cure. CRISPR-Cas9 has recently been tried in adults as a possible way to cure cancer and treat deadly diseases, but the difference is that these changes are limited to only one person. By prenatally making genetic changes, we take the risk of changing the genetics of a family tree forever, and it’s possible that as this technology improves, it will be used for more than just disease prevention.
Researchers suggest that even if we focus initially on improving health, it could lead towards non-therapeutic genetic enhancement, such as strength, beauty, gender, and intelligence. Humans have a tendency to make the impossible possible. We know that human evolution hasn’t stopped; in fact, as it turns out, we may end up having more control of it now than ever before.
We have entered an era where genetic manipulation is no longer a science fiction novelty; it’s a reality of the present. We don’t yet know what the future will look like, but one thing is certain: gene editing is here to stay, and it’s only going to get more sophisticated.
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