Will CRISPR gene editing lead to new era of ‘personalized eugenics’?

The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion and analysis.

Today’s geneticists are able to edit the human genome in ways unforeseeable less than a decade ago. But with discoveries like CRISPR and Cas9 come new risks. The debate around embryonic intervention, particularly when it comes to stem cell research and elective abortion, may soon add another layer rife with controversy: “personalized eugenics” through gene sequencing.

On June 2016, Kishore Hari of Inquiring Minds spoke to cancer geneticist Siddartha Mukherjee from Columbia University Medical Center on the matter.

Though Mukherjee is excited about the realm of new possibilities made possible by recent advancements in technology, he says interventional methods like genetic therapy should be reserved for conditions that cause the most suffering—not something arbitrary like height, for example.

The topic of embryonic gene editing is sure to come into the political sphere in the next few years, but before it reaches state capitals and corporate boardrooms, Mukherjee says public engagement is the most important factor in determining how genetic science will and should be practiced in America.

Read full, original post: The Ethical Dilemma of Gene Sequencing

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