Should human gene editing be stopped?

Should Human Gene Editing be Stopped?

Should Human Gene Editing be Stopped? International summit on Human Gene Editing- 1st of Dec. - 3rd of Dec. 


In 2015 a discovery was made called "Electroporation". Electroporation creates a electrical field, which practically makes small holes in membranes to allow CRISPR to deliver to cell interiors. CRISPR is part of a normal bacterial process, it is a man made bactaria that can be used for gene driving (CRSIPR cuts the target cell, the cell repairs the damage by replacing the original cell with an altered version). CRISPR has been in a wide range of organisms, generally food or animals, for example bakers yeast, mosquitoes, fruit flies. In October according to sciencenews.org, there was a record of the most genes edited at once, they edited 62 genes that removed viruses that were in the pig DNA to make pig organs safer for human transplant. The Chinese also in October edited dog genes using CRISPR that resulted in the dog having more muscular thighs. There has also been plans on hatching mosquitoes incapable of carrying malaria!

CRISPR is being used because it is a cheap, fast and simper to use then previous methods of gene editing, it first became known in 2012. In 2015 with the new discovery of “Electroporation", they can easily edit human genes as well. Some say that this is good because they could with this method develop a cure for muscular dystrophy, sickle –cell disease and cancer, just to name a few. In China they announced that they recently attempted to use the system to edit human embryos that were nonviable (meaning thought not possible to edit), this experiment was partially successful. When this was announced many people who work in this field called for a temporary prohibition of editing human germline. In early December an international summit organized by the U.S. National Academies of Sciences and Medicine, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the United Kingdom’s Royal Society, debated whether it is ethical to edit human genes. U.S. Rep. Bill Foster said; “We’re on the verge of a technological breakthrough that could change the future of mankind, and we should not blindly charge ahead.” 

Bibliography- 
"Year in Review: Breakthrough Gene Editor Sparks Ethics Debate." Science News. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Jan. 2016. 
"Scientists Debate Ethics of Human Gene Editing at International Summit."The Guardian. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Jan. 2016. 
"Genome Editing." Genome Editing. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Jan. 2016. "Event Review: International Summit on Gene Editing." Humanity Media. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Jan. 2016.

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