DESIGNER BABIES: THE REALITY OF EDITING THE HUMAN GENOME

BY AUSTIN WAHLE – Think of who you are today. An animal enthusiast, an athlete, an expert Mario Kart player, class president, maybe all of the above. There are many outside influences that dictate who someone becomes, but down to our very literal core, we are a compilation of genes. Disease, our phenotypes, and more are decided by our genes. We can all agree that these aspects of our lives play a key role in defining who we are, but what if these genes can be altered? What if our future is changed before we even get the chance to see our first day? This is a new reality that could be facing future generations. The concept of eugenics has become a widely debated topic in this modern era, and it is easy to see why.

Eugenics, by definition, is the science of using selective breeding for the purpose of increasing the chances of desirable traits in an organism or population. This process has long been used in the realm of agriculture, improving plants and yields to continue feeding the world’s growing population. It was not until more modern times that the idea of using this same concept to ‘better’ humans has taken hold. The first successful case of gene therapy was documented in 1990 on a four-year old with SCIDS (Severe Combined Immune Deficiency Syndrome) and she remains in good health. Although, what recent medicine is suggesting is the treatment of these diseases before birth. This technique would be used along with in vitro fertilization, which is the creation of the zygote outside of the female body. This would entail looking at the genes the zygote would express and then altering them if a certain feature is undesirable. This could include the eradication of a disease by removing the mutated part of the genome and replacing it with a healthy segment of genes using the cutting edge CRISPR technology. Most people would probably agree that the removal of a mutated segment of the genome is a good thing, but where the line becomes blurred is when deciding what exactly qualifies as medically necessary and what would simply be a desirable modification.

‘Designer Babies’ would be the result of creating desirable modifications in gametes. Height, intelligence, athletic ability, eye color, and more are all features that have the possibility of being decided by parents prior to a child being born. This effect was first encountered in a study concerning mice, where researchers were able to genetically alter mice to have larger muscles. These mice were referred to as ‘Schwarzenegger Mice’. This produces countless ethical dilemmas, but one problem is the massive separation this could cause between social classes. Creating a ‘Designer Baby’ would be an expensive ordeal and this could lead to a highly stratified society of the ‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots’, even more so than we see today.

Think of who you are today, and then imagine you had been designed. That your genes had been selected for and you were made to be your parents’ view of perfect. Would you feel as though you weren’t your own person, and instead the incarnation of your parents’ fantasies? This is a hard question to answer, but one society may have to find an answer to soon.