But let’s not take calling out Jiankui’s mistakes too far by saying that there should never be gene editing of human embryos. In the future, if done carefully and thoughtfully, creating CRISPR babies could be incredibly helpful in reducing human suffering. Alzheimer’s is a particularly good example of where gene editing human embryos could be worthwhile. On the one hand, CRISPR editing human embryos is especially dangerous because changes to reproductive cells are permanent. Save for further gene editing, the changes will carry over to CRISPR babies’ offspring and their offspring etc.

Source: National Post June 07, 2019 09:56 UTC