The First GM Human Could Exist Within 2 Years
The biotech firm Editas Medicine says that humans who have had their DNA genetically modified could exist within the next 2 years. The company announced that it will soon start the first trials of what it calls a groundbreaking new technique.
U.S.-based Editas is striving to become the first lab in the world to edit the DNA of patients suffering from leber congenital amaurosis (LCA), a genetic condition that causes severe vision loss at birth. Some LCA patients also experience central nervous system conditions, such as epilepsy, developmental delays and motor skill impairment.
LCA is said to be caused by defects in a gene responsible for the creation of a protein that is vital to vision. Editas Medicine scientists believe they can fix the mutated DNA using gene-editing technology known as CRISPRs.
CRISPRs, which stands for “clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats,” allows scientists to edit genes “with precision, efficiency and flexibility,” Gizmodo explained in a May 5, 2015 article. Researchers have reportedly been able to create monkeys with targeted mutations and prevent HIV infection in human cells using this piece of biotechnology.
In early May, Chinese scientists said they’d successfully applied CRISPRs to nonviable human embryos, suggesting that the technology could someday be used to treat any genetic disease. It might even be used to create “designer babies” in the future, though that day is a long ways off.
Editas Medicine hopes to start a CRISPR trial with blind patients in 2017. It would be the first time the technology was ever used on humans.
But there are reasons to proceed cautiously. Every “good” medical breakthrough comes with risks and is a double-edged sword. Even penicillin, perhaps one of the simplest and most life-saving inventions in recorded history, is now overused and contributes to antibiotic-resistant superbugs.
This comes from the journal New Eastern Outlook:
“In reality, all genetic editing, especially when it alters the genetic material of subsequent generations, represents a potential threat to the genetic heritage of the entire planet with potential consequences we may still not fully understand. In a world where the “science is final” regarding humanity’s impact on the planet’s climate, demanding “urgent action” to stop or reverse it, the absence of a similar impetus behind stopping the contamination of our planet’s genetic heritage seems suspiciously hypocritical if not utterly reckless and even intentional.
[…]
Weaponization, accidents and even the prospect of globalized corporations finding, then making inaccessible the cures to diseases and conditions affecting millions such as cancer, diabetes and heart disease are all threats we now face, whether we would like to admit it or not. One point the West correctly made upon its hand wringing over China’s most recent and reckless leap forward, was that the matter of biotechnology’s profound impact on the human genome and the genetic heritage of the entire planet is no longer the subject of a “future” scenario. It is a matter of present concern.”
The real question many are asking is if we should really be manipulating nature in such a way.
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Frankly, it isn’t a matter how of ‘if’ human genetic engineering will happen but only ‘when’. There is no stopping this, we may only delay it at most. Once we understand this, then we can have a conversation about how we should regulate the use of these techniques in humans.
Sincerely speaking, I think there is a collective hysteria behind all that genetic modification crap that´s exposed by the press. I frankly think we are just losing your logical thinking due to repeatedly being exposed to all this crap all the time. Surely, many (perhaps *most* – I´d say) modified organisms used for food are not good for health, but one must not think this assumption is valid for everything science can modify through genetic engineering.
Take for example, the “bubble disease” – somebody is born with a seriously impaired immune system, so the children is not able to live outside an sterile environment (within a bubble) without risking death caused by a simple cold. A “genetic surgery” has to be done to effectively correct the children´s immune system. This “surgery” (AKA genetic modification) is being performed for years and we do not say a thing about it. Where is our logic thinking, in the first place?
I frankly think we are just losing your logical thinking due to repeatedly being exposed to all this crap all the time
Logical thinking, or critical thinking, is not an innate trait. It’s something that has to be learned. As such, it’s not something be lost but rather something that is maybe being developed less or given less weight. For example, many of the articles on websites like this one rely on emotional arguments as opposed to on logical deductions based on empirical evidence.
Surely, many (perhaps *most* – I´d say) modified organisms used for food are not good for health
Case in point. There is no reliable evidence to support this statement. None. In fact, some GMOs are actually used to produce products that help improve people’s health, like insulin.
the “bubble disease”
You mean severe combined immunodeficiency? There are a number of types based on the underlying genetic cause.
This “surgery” (AKA genetic modification) is being performed for years and we do not say a thing about it.
What business is it of yours? If your child was born with a life threatening genetic disorder, like SCID,would you care what laypeople in the general public think about the use of gene therapy to treat your child? Not if you’re being logical, you wouldn’t.
Where is our logic thinking, in the first place?
Good question. Let me know when you start addressing this issue through logical.