A while back I reviewed Doudna and Sternberg’s new book, A Crack in Creation, for the Washington Post (it’s a pretty good book), pointing out the revolution in gene therapy about to occur with the development of the CRISPR/Cas-9 system, which pretty much lets experimenters change DNA in any way they want, including editing out the mutations causing genetic disease to restore a “normal” gene. There are formidable problems with applying this to humans, but it’s been used successfully in other mammals and recently just successfully edited a disease gene in an early-stage human embryo.
That’s the science bit. Now The Onion gives us the pros and cons of this type of gene therapy. Feel free to add your own below:
Also, it could create the animal that my father used to joke about when I was a kid:
Dad: Jerry, what do you get when you cross a tiger with a parrot?
Jerry: I don’t know, Dad. What?
Dad: I don’t know either, but when it talks, you’d better listen!
I’ll be here all year, folks.
Pro – Gene for religion is discovered and then destroyed for all future generations. Soon followed by a need for many more evolutionary biology instructors.
Wouldn’t setting gene-editing on auto-correct prevent beneficial mutations?
Considering what autocorrect does to many comments on this site, that thought is too dreadful to contemplate.
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Seems like “No way the Pope is going to go for this” ought to be in the Pro column.
Dad jokes are definitely the best jokes.
CON: The theologians that will argue that you can’t edit your soul.
CON: The theologians will argue that you _don’t_ have a soul.
They are ignorant, then. Hell was created specifically for our souls.
Pro: An accident will create a new kind of super hero with super strength.
Con: The accident did not also create super strong bones. It will require several weeks in the ICU.
Super-disease injected into giant hornets is exactly what I was thinking. This is all a terrible idea.
Great idea for the hornets, though.
Pro: Scientists invent giant, super-intelligent spiders.
Con: Not everyone thinks that giant super-intelligent spiders are a good idea.
I already hate small, unintelligent spiders. Don’t trust ’em, never have.
You bring giant, super-intelligent spiders into the mix and I’m starting a god damn revolution against them and anyone who dares support them. An arachnophobe can only be pushed so far!
And the following situation is NOT an acceptable compromise:
Pro: your kids could end up smarter than you.
Con: your kids could end up smarter than you.
Pro: millions of lives saved and reduced suffering
Con: comedy gene accidentally removed
Con: Planned Parenthood uses it to change our children into gay marxist islamic satanist hipsters.
Wait, I thought that was a pro… I’m so confused!
On second thoughts maybe it should be a pro. My sticking point was hipsters.
When I was a kid the joke was about a cross between a loin and a parrot. The punchline was “I don’t know what it’s called but it likes to say ‘Polly wanna zebra'”
That’s lion not loin
Gene editing in human,(CRISPR)should be used to correct defective gene to combat diseases and other abnormalities, but not to create superman or cosmetic attributes, and play GOD.