CRISPR

Why Should YOU Care About CRISPR?

If you could save your child from harm, would you? Some people think you shouldn’t.

Imagine this: a couple wants to have twins, but the father is at risk to pass HIV down to their children. They participate in a trial to have the embryos genetically modified with CRISPR and it works, but only on one of the kids. The public is horrified and believes the trial is completely unethical. Do you side with the scientist or the public?

Before we answer that, let’s understand what CRISPR is and how it works.

What is CRISPR?

CRISPR stands for "Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats". Yes, I know it sounds super complicated, but it basically just means “genetic scissors”.

DNA is the code of life inside every living organism and controls basically everything about you, from your eye color to how long your toes are! CRISPR works by using a protein called Cas9 to cut, delete, and insert pieces of DNA. Once edited, DNA can begin using its new genetic material.

How is CRISPR Being Used Today?

CRISPR is being used in a variety of fields, such as:

1. Gene Editing: CRISPR has the amazing ability to manipulate DNA sequences by splicing them. This gives it the potential to be an incredibly impactful treatment for those with genetic disorders.

2. Agriculture: If you look more closely at the foods you eat, you’ll find many of them are GMOs. GMO stands for “genetically modified organism”. CRISPR is being used to modify crops to make them more resistant to pests and diseases, improve their nutritional value, and reduce the resources needed to grow them.

3. Environmental Sciences: CRISPR is being used to help combat environmental problems, such as pollution and climate change. By genetically modifying plants to absorb more carbon dioxide, scientists are reducing the environmental effects of greenhouse gases.

Where is CRISPR Going?

Here are some examples of how CRISPR could be used in the near future:

1. CRISPR can be used to improve treatments for neurodegenerative diseases––such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. CRISPR can target specific genes or mutations that cause neurodegenerative diseases, which could make it a popular treatment for patients.

2. Over 40,000 organ transplants are performed each year, which requires 40,000 perfectly matching human organs to be available. CRISPR technology is being used to engineer potentially dangerous viral genes out of pig cells to make pig organs viable for transplantation. 

While there are many different theories about where CRISPR is headed, they all have one thing in common:

The Ethical Dilemma.

Designer Bags or Designer Babies?

The ethical dilemma presented at the beginning of this article is actually real! Here’s what went down:

Dr. He Jiankui wanted to genetically modify embryos to be resistant to genetic diseases that affected the parents. The risks of editing a pin-sized embryo included introducing unwanted mutations or losing important pieces of genetic material. As a result of Dr. He’s trials, the first genetically tailored humans were born in 2018. The public was concerned parents would begin adding unnecessary modifications to their babies because they wanted their children to have certain traits, creating ‘designer babies.’ Dr. He went to jail.

While CRISPR could develop potential cures to diseases that were previously death sentences, it has a possible number of unintended consequences. Gene editing could lead to harmful mutations, unpredictable effects on the ecosystem, and even a new age of eugenics.

Conversely, CRISPR’s negative effects may be offset by its potential benefits. CRISPR could eliminate genetic diseases, help solve food crises, and personalize new medicines. Each of these benefits could help millions of people.

Time to pop the question: Is CRISPR ethical?

Maybe.

Ethics are decided by morals. The values of an individual could be based on utilitarianism, justice, the common good, selfishness, or something else entirely. There is no "correct” way to view bioethics.

Whether or not something is ethical cannot be decided by one person alone. It's a dialogue that everyone should participate in because each and every one of us will experience the effects of CRISPR in our lifetimes.

So, do you side with the public or Dr. He?

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