The Ethics of Genetically Editing Babies

A Chinese scientist recently has said to have made gene-editing babies, which has set off an uproar by many other scientists. He Jiankui, the scientist involved, used a gene editing technique called Crispr to alter an embryo. He then implanted the embryo inside a woman, who recently has given birth to twin girls in November. Although this is illegal in the United States, China is investigating to see if Dr. He has broken any laws. It is not illegal in China, but many researchers are against it. Another part of the investigation is to ensure he properly informed the couples of the potential risks involved in this procedure. Dr. He has taken a few secretive steps to make this happen. He has submitted his research to a scientific journal, but nothing has been published yet. He also announced the birth of the twins before the research could be peer reviewed by other scientists.

The gene that was edited is called CCR5. This creates a protein that allows H.I.V. to infect people’s cells. Dr. He used the H.I.V./AIDS organizations to recruit couples in China. He used a man who had H.I.V., and a woman who did not, and used an editing technique to disable the CCR5 gene to create babies that would be resistant to H.I.V. The couples involved in this feel that the men now have a reason to live now that he will be able to have children.

Many scientists are not on board with this. They say to change a gene in an embryo you have to change genes in every cell. They believe the only reason changing genes would be okay is if it treats a serious disease for which there are no other options, and there are other options to prevent H.I.V in newborns. This is not a serious need because men with H.IV. do not infect the embryos. Their semen contains the virus that could infect the women, but it could be washed off their sperm before. A doctor could also inject a single sperm into an egg, either way the women would be infected.

This then causes a slippery slope effect. Even though these babies are born with the disabled gene for AIDS they are more susceptible to other things such as west nile virus, and Japanese encephalitis. They also believe these babies can be genetically engineered for traits such as being athletic, and that has nothing to do with preventing medical conditions. They worry that this is a step in using edited genes to create people with intelligence, athletic abilities, or beauty. Dr. He stated that his experiment did not affect any other genes and that the babies were born healthy.

Dr. Musunuru was of one of the many scientists who was angry. He said. “This would have been disturbing anyway — gene-edited babies. It made it a hundred times worse knowing that he had totally mosaic embryos. It’s as if you took the embryos and dipped them in acid and said, ‘You know what, I’m just going to go ahead with the implantation anyway.’ It’s not that much different.” (Kolata, G. and Belluck, P. (2018). A big Ethical issue was dealing with the couples involved. It is unknown if they know exactly what they are agreeing to. The consent they signed was for an AIDS vaccine project, and did not mention all of the risks with disabling the CCR5 gene. Also, when these children grow up they will be passing this altered gene on to many generations, which could cause problems in the future and to many other people.

Since Dr. He has not published his results in a medical journal there are still many unanswered questions. We still do not know who the parents are, or if any of this is real. We also will not know how the gene has affected these children until years down the road. This whole experiment has raised a great deal of controversy, and the only thing we can do now is wait and see what the future will have in store for these genetically modified babies.