Philosophy Now Forum

It's going to be tried out on humans by 2017:

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/54 ... ys-editas/

PhilX

I suspect that if you're the blind guy, it's perfectly ethical and if it works it's a medical miracle.

So, if you have a broken leg and a doctor sets and splints it; is that ethical? After all, God decreed that you fell off that ladder and broke your leg. That's the essence of your question, right?

Some scientists have expressed concern that human germline editing has not only crossed the ethical redline; it is also fraught with many challenges. The recent research by Chinese scientists using CRISPR-Cas9 to edit the embryo genome was not completely successful. So, it had to be abandoned at its preliminary stage.


Researchers from Salk Institute have discovered a holy grail of gene editing.
For the first time, they found the ability to insert DNA at a target location into the non-dividing cells that make up the majority of adult organs and tissues. The technique was able to partially restore visual responses in blind rodents, will open new avenues for basic research and a variety of treatments, such as for retinal, heart and neurological diseases.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SssBxk37_aU

A Chinese group has become the first to inject a person with cells that contain genes edited using the revolutionary CRISPR–Cas9 technique.

It could trigger a biomedical race between China and the US.

On 28 October, a team in China delivered the modified cells into a patient with aggressive lung cancer as part of a clinical trial at the West China Hospital.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSiej_HeMdM&t=2s

wtf wrote:I suspect that if you're the blind guy, it's perfectly ethical and if it works it's a medical miracle.

So, if you have a broken leg and a doctor sets and splints it; is that ethical? After all, God decreed that you fell off that ladder and broke your leg. That's the essence of your question, right?

Wrong. We're not talking about setting broken legs. We're talking about things such as designer babies. Life itself.

BTW things are moving faster than expected since the Chinese are doing it right now.

PhilX

Yes.

CRISPR gene editing is a technology. It is the uses or applications to which it is (or might be) applied which may be thought ethical or unethical. Used to cure disease it is probably ethical used to produce designer babies it may be unethical.

If gene editing becomes a fact what are its possibilities for social control?

I am pessimistic about human nature as far as political and ethical decisions are concerned. Therefor gene editing should be subject to controls far stricter, and internationally policed, than those that govern recreational drugs.

Belinda wrote:If gene editing becomes a fact what are its possibilities for social control?

I am pessimistic about human nature as far as political and ethical decisions are concerned. Therefor gene editing should be subject to controls far stricter, and internationally policed, than those that govern recreational drugs.

Hmmm, maybe you are right. Let's change human nature.