Gene Editing in Humans
Gene editing will one day available to directly affect humans. CRISPR-Cas9 is a technology that can edit human DNA, which can be used to prevent disease and change genetic traits such as appearance. A wide range of genetic diseases could be treated before someone is even born. Although the usage of these treatments on heretible traits is currently not legal in any country, research on gene editing still continues, and further developments could cause governments to change their stance on gene editing.
THE TWO SIDES
In support of human gene editing
CRISPR-Cas9 has a very wide range of genes that it can edit with precision, is easier to use and is faster than other gene editing tools. This could increase accessibility of gene editing. CRISPR-Cas9 can also help speed up research in finding treatments for diseases, which would help everyone in general, not just those whose genes were edited using CRISPR-Cas9.
Gene editing in general could prevent many diseases in humans, which would both reduce the occurrence of diseases in general and would free up resources to tackle other ailments that cannot be addressed by gene editing. Gene editing could also make organ transplants more available in two ways: preventing diseases would remove the need for organ transplants for many people. Secondly, gene editing can be used on pig organs to reduce rejection rates and other risks4, making them available for transplant into humans.
Why human gene editing is dangerous
CRISPR can edit DNA that wasn’t targeted, which could be harmful to the patient and could even cause cancer. Gene editing in humans could create the notion of some people being “biologically inferior” as gene editing would cause people to distinguish certain traits as undesirable and selected to be removed from an embryo, even if those traits don’t have negative health effects.
​
Gene editing treatments being available for humans could cause certain gene editing treatments to become mandated by governments or employers, which reduces your freedom to have certain traits. Our society may not be mature enough to properly use the power to dictate what genetic traits humans have.
How can this affect you?
Currently, no countries with laws regarding genome editing in humans have made it legal to edit heritable genomes. However, if these laws were to be changed, you could prevent disease in your children and change certain traits that they will have. There could also be more funding for research on an ailment that you have due to research on other diseases addressed by gene editing no longer being necessary. Healthcare would have more resources for you in general if many diseases could be addressed by CRISPR. This could cost you hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars, with one estimate for a sickle cell disease gene editing therapy being $1.9 million.
The society that you live in could potentially have reduced diversity and more stark differences between economic classes, which could lead to more discrimination in the country that you live in. You or your children could face discrimination if you would not be able to afford certain genome editing treatments. You could also face less healthcare support if you have some disease that is no longer researched or frequently treated due to it being addressable with genome editing, which would harm you if the genome editing treatment was for some reason unavailable to you.