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| Designer Babies |
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 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
maybe 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 Jean edited
babies now that the dawn of designer babies is finally upon us should we panic
or embrace it the gene editing technique CRISPR caste 9 has revolutionized
humans 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 how 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 cast line gene editing.
The technique to eliminate a single the gene is known as the ccr5 and 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 cast nine 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
cast line 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 casts 9 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
has 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 the era where genetic manipulation is no longer a science fiction novelty it's the 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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