WEEK 6: Designer Humans

After talking about the CRISPR technology in class, I was intrigued about how genome engineering is becoming not only advanced but accessible to the public. I encountered the CRISPR technology for the first time last week, and I was interested in the concept of designing humans and what the boundary is for scientific breakthroughs. What is the limit yet allowing the possibilities for scientific breakthroughs? Furthermore, I was interested in what Victoria said about how China was a world leading innovator for scientific breakthroughs because of less restriction and policies on science. In China, they planned to eliminate a gene, CCR5, to make the genetically engineered babies to be more resistant to certain diseases such as HIV, smallpox, and cholera.

 

This concept of human engineering and designer humans reminded me of a Netflix TV show called Altered Carbon because of the idea of being able to control certain aspects of the human body. In the TV show, people become detached to bodies and see it as a possession of an item. Being able to transfer the human mind from bodies to bodies, they can live forever. The scientific breakthroughs that we are reaching today parallels to the technology in the TV show, which leads to the ethical aspect of human engineering. What are the acceptable extent of human engineering or is human engineering a taboo?

 

In one perspective, human engineering will be able to prevent people from dying from diseases and less medical fees in the future because they would not have to get vaccinated. Even though humans become engineered to be resistant to the diseases today, won’t the diseases evolve as well? There are so much information in our DNA that if we start engineering the genes, we may be losing the information in the future when we truly need it.

 

Furthermore, the idea of designer babies have been apparent for years. For instance, for reproductive cell donors, they have specific requirement or some cells sell for higher price or they are more desirable such as resistance to diseases, appearance, race, and more. Although they are not created in a petri dish or in a lab, the idea of designer babies have been around for years. People have been attracted this idea that they can take desirable traits and implement it in their offsprings.

 

Some companies are even offering thousands of dollars for the reproductive cells from desirable donors. Some people are saying that this is speeding up the natural selection process. While this may be true, as I have mentioned previously, genes are information that we still fail to interpret and understand fully. People should be more aware of the future generation instead of rapidly trying to advance scientific knowledge.

Image result for crispr

 

Image result for crispr

 

Image result for crispr
 

“Altered Carbon (TV Series).” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 8 May 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altered_Carbon_(TV_series).

Houser, Kristin. “This Company Is Charging $750,000 for Eggs and Sperm From ‘Genetically Desirable’ People.” Futurism, Futurism, 1 May 2017, futurism.com/a-company-is-charging-750000-for-eggs-and-sperm-from-genetically-desirable-people.

Regalado, Antonio. “EXCLUSIVE: Chinese Scientists Are Creating CRISPR Babies.” MIT Technology Review, MIT Technology Review, 26 Nov. 2018, www.technologyreview.com/s/612458/exclusive-chinese-scientists-are-creating-crispr-babies/.

“Third-Party Reproduction: Sperm, Egg, and Embryo Donation and Surrogacy.” Reproductive Facts, www.reproductivefacts.org/news-and-publications/patient-fact-sheets-and-booklets/documents/fact-sheets-and-info-booklets/third-party-reproduction-sperm-egg-and-embryo-donation-and-surrogacy/.

“Would I Want a Designer Baby? CRISPR, Gene-Editing, and You.” LEAF, 21 Feb. 2019, www.leafscience.org/would-i-want-a-designer-baby/.