Hacker News Reader

Comment by codeproject | Hacker News Reader

Two years ago, Chinese Scientist Dr.He JianKui did a very similar thing. He edited the genome of twin girls so that they will be immune to the HIV-virus. By all account the project is successful. The announcement of this breakthrough causes a lot controversies. People are shocked and dismayed. Here is the link: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-07545-0

View on HN

Using CRISPR to edit the genomes of human embryos because YOLO, is very different to using it in a modified version of an existing treatment for sickle cell anemia. Do you not see the difference in ethical scale and scope?

>Do you not see the difference in ethical scale and scope?

I agree with you that to you (and me) in this case there is a difference.

But, who sets the scale & scope?

(I am aware that the box has been opened, it will never be closed.)

Totally Agree!!! it is the initial stage.

HIV is a very capable mutator, all he did was give it a chance in two hosts to mutate against. and then who knows the future danger of the kid's health. Dolly the sheep was cloned, but had enlarged organs. So not perfect. And what changes in these kids is a huge unknown and there was no way to predict it, because the doc just did because he could. Plus a whole eugenics program has a huge historical negative example in the last century because it lead to death camps.

>But, who sets the scale & scope?

Whoever does it, hopefully it is after evidence-based discussions to establish a framework for ethical and safe application. Just because the box can’t be closed doesn’t mean we just throw our hands up and say “well, nothing we can do to steer this in a responsible direction”. We don’t breed humans like dogs to produce super men, even though we theoretically could.

if you read the Original Article close enough, You will see the subtle point here:

>If this is successfully applied in young patients, it has the potential to prevent irreversible complications of the disease

How young is this going to be, One years old, 1 month old...

Bone marrow transplants as a treatment for SA are already a thing. All this does is make it so you can use the patient's own bone marrow instead of a donor, hopefully reducing rejection. There's no subtle point to be made, the question you're asking is a solved one, because it's just a modification of an existing therapy.

Now, compare that to editing human embryos in vitro then implanting them, just because you want to prove it's possible to use a gene editing technique to alter the genome of a person.

Trying to enhance or disable healthy genes isn't the same as fixing known disease-causing mutations.

Moreover, identifying harmful mutations can't tell you how to build superhumans. So I think the similarity is only superficial.

He JianKui's Project is not to build the superman. the parent of the baby girls is HIV positive. He did that so that Parent is not going to worry about their babies is going to get the disease.

For now.

Helping China to trade is not to build a totalitarian country as well. Just trade.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com