Chinese Scientists Try To Alter Genomes In Human Embryos

Bet you did not know that today is National DNA Day. It is. But before we all begin to party over our biological programming, remember this is also the day when the world is trying to figure out how to respond to a paper from a team of scientists in China stating that they tried to alter the genomes of human embryos using a new technique known as CRISPR.

Without getting bogged down in the details, CRISPR it is a new powerful tool that permits editing or clipping out segments of DNA and inserting novel genetic material. The Chinese group used it for the first time in human embryos, thereby taking a baby step across the line to trying out a technology that someday could be used to change the DNA of our descendants to repair genetic diseases, get rid of traits we don’t like or to try and build better, improved babies. Yes, that is the low moan of eugenics you hear in the background of this CRISPR experiment. Happy National DNA Day to you, too.

The results of the human embryo germline engineering study were scientifically crummy. DNA went all over the place with little predictability, leading the Chinese team to publish what they did in a relatively obscure journal and to wind up calling for more research.

The ethics, or lack of ethics, in what they did is far more important.

Genetic engineering to date has been confined, with the exception of a few mitochondrial transplants, to changing the genes in the cells in our bodies. These changes are not passed on to our kids. But changed genes in embryos are or could be if you took the altered embryos out of a dish and put them into a woman’s uterus.

The Chinese scientists lurched into human germline engineering with the approval, they say, of a local ethics committee. Why that committee thought this huge step was justified now is not clear. Nor is it clear how they got the embryos they used. Nor is it clear why they couldn’t or shouldn’t have tried their experiment in a mouse or rabbit embryo. Nothing they published required a human trial.

More to the point, the world ought to have a say in whether and when genetically modifying future humans should be done. Starting with an obscure experiment with little oversight is not the way to gain anyone’s trust, much less permission. The world needs some clear guidelines and needs them fast. Without them this ought to be the last experiment we hear about.

Source: Forbes Health