The argument for and against gene editing through the CRISPR technology has created a lot of controversy within the last ten years. There are a lot of people that support doing this for pros that it has, these include eliminating genetic diseases through gene altercation and the creation of so called “designer babies.” On the other hand people felt strongly against this subject because it required scientists to essentially play God with the embryos they are working with. Another reason people were against it was because it required a large amount of human experimentation which allows for a lot of unintended consequences. The idea of altering genes to eliminate very harmful genetic diseases is very intriguing to me. This is intriguing because if we were successfully able to do this we could essentially eliminate all genetic disease and keep that child safe. Not only would work on that one child, but it would also get passed down from generation to generation after. This is a big pro, but we do not know how well this will work. There are a lot chances for unseen consequences to arise from this and the scary part is we won’t be able to see them until it’s to late. This is the scariest part about this whole situation for me because it requires a lot of experimenting on humans.
It is a hard decision on whether or not we should allow gene editing to be done on humans. One on hand it could be incredibly beneficial and allow for a lot more success to occur for the human species. It is also risky and gives scientists the chance to play God which is an intimidating thought. I believe we should do a little amount of genetic editing but not until we fully understand the subject.
Hi Cameron, how are you? When I read your post, I thought you were doubtful like me. You seem to have a deliberate decision whether it should be done or not. It is true that if we use this tool, we will be able to completely eliminate the disease we currently have and the future ones. We can save many lives! However, as you mention, we would be acting like God, manipulating and modifying the genes of human beings. I also agree when you state that we cannot know how well these modifications can work, probably some problems may arise, and we ended up destroying our entire existence. Anyway, good post!