Maniar 1

Faisal Maniar

March 31st 2019

UWRT 1104

Malcolm Campbell

Is It Too Soon For Designer Babies?

Recently a chinese scientist by the name of He Jiankui announced that he had used

CRISPR, a gene editing method, to successfully edited the genes of two twin girls. These twin

girls were edited so that they are not able to be infected by HIV, which sounds like an amazing

thing, but is it really? As of right now the amount of information scientists know about genetics

is miniscule, compared to the information that is unknown, and it raises the question, Is it too

soon for designer babies?

When it comes to editing genes, the DNA of bacteria and other animals have been done

with complete success, but when it comes to human DNA it is very complex due to the varying

proteins that cause genes to be expressed, and very rarely does one gene affect one phenotype or

genotype, so changing one gene can lead to monumental mutations in the subject’s DNA. Now

editing a gene in a person who is already born versus a human that is unborn and in a early stage

of development the results are extremely different, because when you edit the genes of a born

human it affects similar types of cells within their body but when you edit the genes of a unborn

human every cell in their body contains the tampered DNA. As such editing the DNA of an

unborn human can prove to be extremely risky and that is one reason most countries have

outlawed the practice of editing human genes with the exception of gene therapy.
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Greg Wilpert, of The Real News Network, interviewed Stuart Newman, a cell biology

professor and founding member of the Council for Responsible Genetics about the CRISPR

experiments that had occurred during and Wilpert said, “I guess the main issue here, perhaps, is

that there’s a lot of potential for unintended consequences and that the biology is a lot more

complicated than people make it out to be if you look only at the individual genes. Is that more

or less it in a nutshell?”, and Newman agreed to this claim stating that editing genes is a lot more

complicated than most people think because you cannot predict what will happen because all of

the other factors that play a role in embryo development, such as environmental factors.

Scientists cannot account for the many other factors that influence an embryos developments and

how big of an influence said factors are as the environmental factors varies from person to

person, and this is why the vast amount of unknown knowledge about the effects of editing genes

is because genes alone are not the only factors involved in the development of human embryos.

Is it too soon?

It is too soon for the general and experimental use of gene editing, because of how much

we do not know about genetic editing and how risky the implementation of gene editing will be.

When looking if genetic editing should be made a public commodity we have to realise that

many traits can be linked link to one gene, and the converse that one trait can be linked to many

genes, so while we may be trying to change one phenotype or genotype it is very likely that we

are affecting many genes and that can come with unintended consequences, like life altering

mutations which could be beneficial or on the other hand extremely harmful and unless we are

able to contain these harmful consequences, which is not possible with the current amount of
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genetic knowledge available, then we should not allow gene editing to be practiced and it should

be banned where it is not and stay banned where the practice already is.

Back to the designer twins, it has been confirmed that they are alive, but no information

on the health of these two twins has been given, so we can only assume they are okay but that is

no reason to justify the practice of gene editing as it is a huge risk to the lives of those affected.

Even if the intentions of He Jiankui were only to set an example for how CRISPR gene editing

should be done for the future and to prevent to twins from being able to be infected by HIV.

Also, according to Katie Hasson of The Center For Genetics And Society, Jiankui attempted to

reproduce the delta-32 variant of the CCR5 which is naturally found in 10% of northern

europeans and is know to grant HIV resistance, however other claim that the edits Jiankui made

were not the delta-32 variant but rather a new previously unknown variant of CCR5, that might

block to uptake of HIV, but also might present unknown risks, which would be a huge problem

since this is the first case of gene editing there is a possibility that these risks will not be able to

be treated all as a result of careless science.

Now some would beg to differ that the use of genetic editing can be used as a

enhancements similar to how private schools work are an extra benefit if the parents are willing

to pay, however genetic editing should not be an alternative to environmental enhancements yet,

as along with the risks present with genetic editing the genetic identity of the child is changed.

Also the risk of environmental enhancements is quite lower than that of genetic enhancements,

as with environmental enhancements, like private schools, the child will benefit for with less risk

but with the trade-off of time while with genetic enhancements you save on time and but the risk
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is greatly raised. With the risked involved genetic editing should be held off until the risked

accompanied by the benefits can be reduced to an acceptable level.

However the benefits of practicing human genetic editing has the potential to be

extremely rewarding. If genetic editing becomes general, we could genetically enhance cognitive

ability, physical ability, disease resistance and so much more. There could be an age where we

genetically engineer and superior human race, a human race that is smarter, stronger, and all

around better in every aspect of genetics. If we could reap the benefits of human genetic editing

then we could live in a world void of all types of disease, viral infection, genetic disorders, and

many other ailments that plague the human race, but on the other hands super soldiers could also

become a reality, which can both act as a means of war as well as a deterrent of war, as less

developed countries will not have the means of fighting such a war, and super soldiers will end

up serving the same purpose of nuclear weapons.

Unfortunately, at this point in time the risks of genetically editing a human greatly

outweigh the benefits because we do not have the knowledge to make the benefits a reality. One

day in the near future human genome editing may be feasible practice where we can live in the

world of superior humans, where we are no longer plagued by diseases and disorders, but until

the risk of human genome editing is reduced to an acceptable level, it should not be something

humans should be looking towards, even if the intentions editing the genes is entirely positive or

driven by malicious intent.

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In Conclusion

Because the risks of genetic editing at this point in time greatly outweighs the

benefits, it is too soon for designer babies, genetic enhancements, and many other possibilities

that could be made possible. However in the foreseeable future the risk of genetic editing can be

reduced as we,slowly but surely, unlock the secrets hidden within the human DNA, and the

CRISPR twins are the first step in that direction, maybe not the most ethical step but a step

nonetheless.
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Work Cited

Hasson,Katie.“Are CRISPR Babies Healthy? Enhanced? Speculation Takes a Disturbing

Turn.” Are CRISPR Babies Healthy? Enhanced? Speculation Takes a Disturbing Turn |

Center for Genetics and Society, https://www.geneticsandsociety.org/biopolitical-

times/are-crispr-babies-healthy-enhanced-speculation-takes-disturbing-turn.

Sorensen, Kelly.”Genetic enhancements and expectations”.BMJ Journals. 30 Jun

2009.https://jme.bmj.com/content/35/7/433. Accessed 12 Mar 2019

The Real News Network, The Real News Network, 3 Feb. 2019,

therealnews.com/stories/chinese-scientists-human-genetic-engineering-

experiment-is-crazy.