Gene editing ethics under microscope
A group made up of some of the world’s top scientists and ethicists are leaving the door open to altering the human genome in ways that would affect the descendants of patients with hereditary diseases and disabilities, but say designer babies should be shelved for now.
“It’s clear that the basic science is going at a great pace and lots of good things will come from that,” said committee co-chairman and MIT professor Richard Hynes. “If it doesn’t do any harm, why would you prohibit these parents, for example, from having a healthy child?”
The group, brought together by the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine, was meant to address some of the big ethical and societal questions that come from the ability to not only change someone’s genome, but potentially impact generations of offspring. In a report released yesterday, the committee wrote that so-called “germline” genetic changes should only be conducted when there are no other options.
“There are thousands of inherited diseases that are caused by mutations in single genes,” the report said. “Editing germline cells could reduce the burden of inherited disease for a child and allow prospective parents who carry known disease-causing mutations to have genetically related offspring without the risk of passing mutations to their children.”
Genome editing is only being discussed because of a quickly emerging technology, CRISPR. The tool, which makes it easy to cut and replace specific genetic sequences, is only a few years old, but is already expected to have widereaching implications.
In a speech in Boston last year, former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates suggested that mosquito-borne diseases such as malaria could be eradicated by changing the genomic sequence of mosquitoes. Hynes and others said gene editing is already being done, and germline editing could be available in five to 10 years.
The report also stressed that using gene editing for enhancements shouldn’t happen right now because the benefits for the patient would be far less than those for someone dealing with a medical condition.
Allowing people to genetically enhance themselves would also present serious ethical issues, the report said.
Although some attributes, like strength, could be modified relatively easily, changing things like height or intelligence at the genetic level is much more complex. A recent study found there are about 700 genes directly tied to someone’s height.
“This is all very complex, the science is not at all clear,” said Rudolph Jaenisch, a researcher at MIT’s Whitehead Institute. “That is a pipe dream, it’s not going to work with present knowledge.”