2016 Fear vs Hope: Gene Editing— Terrible turning point?
By Pete Shanks,
Deccan Chronicle
| 01. 01. 2017
The next year may represent our best chance to prevent the rise of a modern, uncontrolled and dangerously ill-considered techno-eugenics.
If new “gene editing” tools can be used to treat people who are sick, that would be a hugely welcome development. But applying them to human reproduction could all too easily open the door to a world of genetic haves and have-nots. Will it be possible for the distinction between responsible and irresponsible applications of human genetic technologies to hold, in policy and in practice? There is hope, but the signals from 2016 are very worrying.
One year ago, the U.S. National Academies Summit on Human Gene Editing ended with a consensus statement that proceeding with inheritable (germline) gene editing would be “irresponsible” until both the science was proven and there was “broad societal consensus about the appropriateness of the proposed application.”
It didn’t take long for that to seem wildly optimistic. Even before that announcement, and in complete secrecy, a rogue American scientist had defied authorities by using Mexican facilities to create a baby for a Jordanian couple using... see more
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From a screenshot by Eben Kirksey, tweeted on January 5, 2022
He Jiankui, the Chinese researcher who genetically modified human embryos and supervised their use to establish pregnancies in two women, was widely condemned as a “rogue scientist.” A major concern for years has been “rogue fertility clinics” that could offer to create genetically modified babies. Eben Kirksey may have found some. He tweeted on January 5:
A medical tourism company, http://heal2go.com, is offering "Genetically Modified Babies" at clinics in...
