As displayed in famous science-fiction works such as Jurassic Park and Frankenstein, disaster always occurs when man plays God. One of those situations could emerge with genome editing. Genome editing can be defined as an area of research that focuses on changing specific genes within an organism’s DNA. The idea of humans being able to simply insert, delete, modify, or replace certain genes may seem terrifying, and too susceptible to abuse. Genome editing could instigate a tremendous change in how human society will function.
According to Sikandar Hayat Khan’s article, Genome-Editing Technologies, important principal concerns to consider, “...include the morality, the eugenics helping the fittest to survive, ongoing clinical debates about informed consent, religious debate, the possible rise of clones, designer babies, and possibly superhumans.” These ethical concerns need to be considered to prevent misuse and corruption. Furthermore, the possibility of gene editing could harm the economy, lead to genetic warfare, and contribute to the development of deadly diseases.
Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats, or CRISPR, technology provides a tremendous breakthrough in genetic engineering that can wipe out global diseases and save many lives. As mentioned by Jennifer Doudna in her TED Talk, “How CRISPR Lets Us Edit Our DNA”, she points out the potential of the precise CRISPR technology that even allowed, “scientists in Philadelphia... to remove the DNA of an integrated HIV virus from infected human cells.” Even though beneficial possibilities exist with this technology in the clinic, numerous unknowns and potential negative outcomes still exist that could threaten a patient’s life. In Mary Bergman’s article, “Perspectives on Gene Editing”, she writes about the reasons for caution which, “include targeting the wrong gene; off-target impacts, in which editing a gene might fix one problem but cause another; and mosaicism, in which only some copies of the gene are altered.”
Much can be learned about this technology that will lead to more information. Currently, the widespread lack of knowledge concerning the use of gene editing could pose problems, but may have potential for future innovations in science.
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