Editing Humans for Fun and Profit

The Chinese have come out and admitted they now have the first genetically edited human beings in twin girls.

The article does cite some of the concerns with doing these kinds of things to human beings. I would add, doing this to anything is a grave concern.

There is so much we do not know about DNA. Going in and editing like we know everything about our actions there is over the top hubris.

Here’s an excerpt from the article and the link to the article:

Chinese researcher claims first gene-edited babies

A Chinese researcher claims that he helped make the world’s first genetically edited babies — twin girls born this month whose DNA he said he altered with a powerful new tool capable of rewriting the very blueprint of life.

If true, it would be a profound leap of science and ethics.

A U.S. scientist said he took part in the work in China, but this kind of gene editing is banned in the United States because the DNA changes can pass to future generations and it risks harming other genes.

Many mainstream scientists think it’s too unsafe to try, and some denounced the Chinese report as human experimentation.

The researcher, He Jiankui of Shenzhen, said he altered embryos for seven couples during fertility treatments, with one pregnancy resulting thus far. He said his goal was not to cure or prevent an inherited disease, but to try to bestow a trait that few people naturally have — an ability to resist possible future infection with HIV, the AIDS virus.

“We trade real labor for fake money to pay fraudulent taxes on stuff we don’t own.” ==Doreen Hannes