Ethical Concerns Arise Over Dawn of the Designer Baby

For the first time ever, researchers from Oregon Health & Science University repaired a disease-causing gene in human embryos using the gene-editing tool Crispr-Cas9.

From the Daily Mail:

In a world first, they used gene-editing to cut out DNA from a fertilised egg. The embryo then repaired itself, replacing the mutated material with healthy cells.
The technique worked on three quarters of the 58 embryos it was tried on. It has the potential to revolutionise medicine and could lead to the eradication of inherited diseases such as cystic fibrosis and breast cancer.

The researchers specifically targeted a mutant gene called MYBPC3. This gene famously caused 23-year-old footballer Fabrice Muamba to collapse on the pitch in 2012, his heart stopping for 78 minutes.

While some hail this new feat in gene editing as a positive advancement for science, others are warning that this type of genetic tampering could open the door to ‘superior designer babies’, where children are designed to look better, be stronger, and have higher intelligence.

Dr David King, of the campaign group Human Genetics Alert, is someone who is making his voice heard over the ethical concerns.

‘What concerns me most is that we will start making babies to order, and then expecting them to perform according to the way we have genetically designed them,’ Dr King said.

Josephine Quintavalle, of the campaign group Comment on Reproductive Ethics, said the research was of an ‘extremely questionable kind’ and also warned of the risk that it could one day be used to create ‘superior’ babies.

"Introducing new, controversial techniques is not just about developing the science – gene editing would need to offer new options to couples at risk of having a child with a genetic disease, beyond current treatments like embryo testing," Quintavalle said in a statement. "High quality public discussion about the ethics of new treatments, expert scientific advice and a robust regulatory system are crucial when considering new treatments of this kind."

According to a recent study in Nature Methods, it was found that the CRISPR-9 gene editing technique can introduce hundreds of unintended mutations into the genome, signaling that this type of science is still very risky.

What do you think? Is this ethical? Or is this just a natural progression in science? Leave a comment below!