←back to thread

Baby is healed with first personalized gene-editing treatment

(www.nytimes.com)
1165 points jbredeche | 2 comments | 15 May 25 18:06 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
Show context
throw7 ◴[15 May 25 20:12 UTC] No.43998840[source]▶
Gattaca here we come!
replies(3): >>43999792 #>>44000149 #>>44001430 #
Joel_Mckay ◴[16 May 25 02:55 UTC] No.44001430[source]▶
Fertility care often already included testing for common genetic disorders, and parents with a history of severe disease would often make the hard choice to try again. Due to recent Theocratic political shifts, it means more families will face the worst possible life for their children.

Gattaca was a film years ahead of its time, and raises the question of what happens when people try to "fix" human beings beyond disease prevention. A subtle, but important ethical difference. =3

replies(2): >>44001704 #>>44008142 #
1. im3w1l ◴[16 May 25 03:56 UTC] No.44001704[source]▶
Disease is fuzzy word, it basically means below some made up bar for healthiness. Take dyslexia as a simple example. That disease can by definition not exist in an illiterate population. We have raised the bar and now they are diseased in need for a cure.

The more we things we cure the higher we will reach and the higher we reach the higher we will raise the bar. I don't think that's a bad thing, but its worth bearing in mind.

replies(1): >>44001909 #
2. Joel_Mckay ◴[16 May 25 04:43 UTC] No.44001909[source]▶
Various learning challenges would fall outside a lifetime of suffering, and often such kids have statistically higher IQ. ;)

I think it is more likely people will create synthetic diseases by experimenting on human beings with unique unpredictable gene expression.

He Jiankui already crossed the ethical boundary in 2018... only to discover his best intentions were still nonsense. The GMO kids he helped edit will have a lifetime to figure out if that alteration negatively affected them, and as adults consider how their own children may change.

People may cross the "Primum non nocere" line, but it can never ethically be justified =3