Editorial Simplified: Editing Our Genes| GS – IV

Relevance: GS Paper IV


Why has this issue cropped up?

Bioethicists fear abuse of gene editing by governments and the private sector.


Crispr

  • Crispr, an acronym for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats, harnesses the natural defence mechanisms of bacteria to alter an organism’s genetic code.
  • It’s likened to a pair of molecular scissors, a cut-and-paste technology, that can snip the two DNA strands at a specific location and modify gene function.
  • The cutting is done by enzymes like Cas9, guided by pre-designed RNA sequences, which ensure that the targeted section of the genome is edited out.

The question raised by the gene editing

  • The elegance of this editing tool has transformed medical research and gives rise to the question: can a faulty gene be deleted or corrected at the embryonic stage?
  • Last month, researchers in China used Crispr. It was done on 18 viable human embryos through in-vitro. Two of the embryos, however, exhibited unintended changes.
  • The findings are the focus of an ongoing debate, with several scientists sceptical of whether the gene was corrected. Can accuracy be guaranteed in early stage embryos?

The ethical concern

Bioethicists expressed concern over the clinical application of such research.

  • Can we — and should we — control or dictate evolution?
  • Bioethicists fear abuse of gene editing, not just by misguided governments hoping to create a ‘superior’ race, but also by the private sector preying on a parent’s desire to create a perfect child.

Way forward

  • These are still early days in genome engineering. As our understanding grows, we will have the potential to edit out genes that cause fatal diseases.
  • We will perhaps one day have the potential to use the very same mechanisms to edit out undesirable traits in human beings.

Conclusion

The burden of this knowledge cannot be borne by science alone.


 

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