Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are any organisms whose genetic material has been altered using genetic engineering techniques. Most food shoppers are by now familiar with the acronym that can be found on the stickers attached to produce they are purchasing, produce that is usually much larger than its non-GMO counterparts. In the past years GMOs have either been praised for helping with food shortages or highly protested and demonized for being unnatural and highly more likely to be exposed to pesticides as well as herbicides.
The GMO food debate has definitely become a controversial one, but what if the organisms that are modified go beyond what we eat? What if the organisms in question are us? In the past several years Chinese scientists have been experimenting with that concept. By using embryos deemed unsuitable for in vitro fertilization (IVF) procedures, scientists edited the DNA of the embryos to combat the disease β-thalassemia in 2015. Then scientists in China modified embryos again the following year by making them HIV resistant. They did this by using the CRISPR gene editing tool to insert the selectively naturally occurring mutation CCR5Δ32, which makes individuals with it more resistant to contracting the HIV virus, into the genomes. Some of the embryos developed unintended mutations, thus all were destroyed. There is still much to be learned about the technique and the devastating complications that could result from it.
In February 2016 a group of scientists were given the okay in the United Kingdom by the Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority (HFEA) to edit the DNA of human embryos but only for the purpose of better understanding human development, not to “better” the DNA as scientists in China were working on. But like the experiments in China the embryos in the UK will also be from excess of unusable IVF donors and will be destroyed after experimentation. While it is illegal to plant these embryos in a human being, The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has called for a halt of any such genetic testing.
There is definitely a rational fear that such organism modifying could open up the floodgates to new types of human suffering that cannot be undone. There is also the concern that such editing could lead to “designer babies”. The vision of the “perfect” human race, the dream of Nazis and other eugenicists could be actualized and bring on the elimination of the unique individual only found in nature. Stay informed and curious.
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