By: Shreya AgrawalOn the 25th of November, a revolutionary medical breakthrough was made. A scientist in Southern China, He Jiankui, discovered a way to genetically modify babies. Gene editing, a concept first introduced by Herbert Boyer and Stanley Cohen, is the process of changing one or more codes of DNA in an organism and customizing its genetic makeup.
He Jiankui has taken this technology one step further than what has so far been achieved and deemed ethical by scientists. His accomplishment has sparked much controversy and criticism from scientists around the world. Jiankui used gene editing with CRISPR in a human embryo to create two twin girls- Lulu and Nana. Because the father of the twins is HIV positive, Jiankui used his technology to produce children who wouldn’t be infected with the disease. However, this success didn’t come easily. The path for He to get to this point was a rocky one consisting of many failed attempts. His team began with 22 embryos, but only one of them actually lead to a pregnancy. In a video explaining his discovery, Jiankui says, "When Lulu and Nana were just a single cell, this surgery removed a doorway through which HIV enters to infect people" Despite He’s claims that his gene-editing has prevented the twins from becoming victims to HIV, the success of his technology is still uncertain. It is possible that the twins will get HIV in the years to come. In addition, there are also other implications caused by Jiankui technology. The scientist inserted a variation of the CCR5 gene in the embryo, which is known to have a natural resistance to HIV. However, this CCR5 gene, also makes people vulnerable to other diseases, such as the West Nile virus or the flu. So in trying to eradicate one disease, it is possible that Jiankui increased the likelihood of other diseases harming the twins. Julian Savulescu, a professor of practical ethics at the University of Oxford, said “Gene editing itself is experimental and is still associated with off-target mutations, capable of causing genetic problems early and later in life, including the development of cancer.” Regardless of Jiankui apparent success in providing a couple with healthy twins, this kind of gene-editing is illegal in most countries because of its perceived dangers and uncertainty. Genetic modifications to humans is a very new and emerging technology. The only humans to have had this type of procedure performed on them, are Lulu and Nana, and it is yet to be seen how they and their future generations react to it. It is possible that the future generations of the twins may suffer side effects due to the DNA changes being passed on to them. Dr. Kiran Musunuru, a University of Pennsylvania gene-editing expert, said “It was unconscionable, an experiment on human beings that is not morally or ethically defensible.” Although some believe that this discovery is a big step forward for mankind, many people believe that this step is dangerously crossing the line of ethics. Jiankui discovery has sparked much controversy and criticism from scientists and researchers across the world. Many people are even going as far as to call the twins created by Jiankui, “designer babies”. This issue is one concerning ethics, science, and morality. The fact of the matter is that Jiankui is changing what it means to be a human. He is taking the most natural occurrence, the genetic makeup of a baby, and using artificial means to alter them. Technology today is rapidly evolving and in a scary way. Where Jiankui sees a new medical advancement which eliminates genetic diseases, others see this as human experimentation and technology which may lead to many negative implications in the future.
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