Is Human Gene Editing A Good Thing?

Altering human genes has been a very controversial topic for a long time. Although scientists have found many great benefits to gene editing, humans generally believe that messing with our DNA is a bad idea. 

Humans In 10 Years

In an article posted by Pew Research, a survey was conducted in the hopes to discover how U.S. adults feel about future biomedical technologies. In this survey, the results show that most people are against new possible human enhancements. For example, one possible future invention is a brain chip implant to give humans greatly improved cognitive abilities, like a greater attention span, memory and faster information processing.

The results for this section of the survey found that 34% of adults are excited for this technology, while 69% are worried about this new technology. Another interesting point brought up in this article, is how religious people seem to be more against altering their natural genes.

Gene Editing

The most interesting part of this article, in my opinion, is the altering of human embryo's genes. The article states that we could see "Gene editing to give babies a lifetime with much reduced risk of serious disease" in our future.

Fetus Gene Editing

Although the other two examples shown in this article were criticized by Americans greatly, the idea of altering babies genes was more positively received. With 49% of Americans believing embryo gene editing to be a good idea, this shows that gene editing could realistically happen soon in our countries future.

Perfect Baby

Finally, human gene editing, a technology you'd only expect to see in Sci-fi movies is finally becoming a reality. Although this new science may come with many Pros and Cons, our country will first have to decide whether we want to push the limits of the human body, to become something we've never thought to be possible.

Sources:

"Gene Editing." GEN, Mary Ann Liebert, 1 November 2019,         

          www.genengnews.com/sponsored/improve-your-gene-editing-success-with-crispr-sniper- 

          technology/  Accessed 15 Nov. 2019. 

Harry Pettit. "Humans In 10 Years." Daily Mail, 23 Dec. 2016,         

          www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4061132/What-humans-look-like-100-years-Expert-

          reveals-genetically-modified-bodies-ll-need-survive.html  Accessed 15 Nov. 2019.


Perfect Baby. Economist,
          www.economist.com/leaders/2015/08/22/editing-humanity.  Accessed 15 Nov. 2019.


Pew Research. 2 Nov. 2016,
          www.pewresearch.org/science/2016/07/26/u-s-public-wary-of-biomedical-technologies-to-
          enhance-human-abilities/. Accessed 15 Nov. 2019.


Rathi, Akshat. "A highly successful attempt at genetic editing of human embryos has opened the door to eradicating inherited diseases ." Quartz, 2 Aug. 2017,
          qz.com/1041609/a-highly-successful-attempt-at-genetic-editing-of-human-embryos-has-opened-
          the-door-to-eradicating-inherited-diseases/.  Accessed 15 Nov. 2019.