Chinese paper on embryo engineering splits scientific community

The announcement that a Chinese team had altered the genetics of a human embryo for the first time has ignited a firestorm of controversy around the world and renewed recent calls for a moratorium on any attempt to establish a pregnancy with such an engineered embryo. But it has also underscored that while scientists are united in their opposition to any clinical application of such embryo manipulation, they are split on the value of basic research that involves genetically modifying human embryos.

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if you can remove faulty genes that cause disease and other unwanted afflictions then why not?

its all very well to take some high ground but if you can stop many of the problems that humans develop thanks to faulty genes then its going to be a lot more efficient to get rid of it earlier than later

wookiemeister said:

if you can remove faulty genes that cause disease and other unwanted afflictions then why not?

its all very well to take some high ground but if you can stop many of the problems that humans develop thanks to faulty genes then its going to be a lot more efficient to get rid of it earlier than later

if gene editing gets past ethic standards and off target effects are eliminated etc then yes It should be used in human embryos to prevent disease.

this bit of the article is concerning because you dont want any gene editing itself causing mutations

Two days after being injected with gene-editing molecules, only four of 54 surviving embryos that were tested carried the desired genetic changes; these embryos were mosaic, meaning only some cells had the intended changes. The edited embryos also had large number of off-target effects, or mutations in genes other than HBB, that could be potentially harmful.

consider Ripley in one of the later alien movies when she is confronted by multiple version of herself all mutated

but this is happening with human embryos, hence the ethics involved should be carefully considered

here is one article on ethical dilemma,

Ethical dilemma: Chinese tampering with human embryos could spark resurgence of eugenics, some fear