I stumbled across this article earlier today with the title “Scientists Seek Moratorium on Edits to Human Genome That Could Be Inherited.” The title immediately attracted my interest. The general idea behind the article is that scientists are meeting and discussing the ethics on altering genetic material that could potentially be passed on in the gene pool. Genes that could be altered include disease causing genes but also physical genes that could fall under the category that would create “designer babies.” The main concern seems to be that alteration of these genes could change the gene pool dramatically over the next few generations.

I personally am not a fan of gene alteration. I understand the hope to select for certain genes to help prevent disease, but my main concern with gene alteration is the notion that people are trying to “play god.” With modern medicine, we have more or less stopped evolution within our own species and while these changes may be a new way for our species to evolve, the idea of selecting for genes that have evolved over millions of years is daunting to me and there is no real way for us to tell what the effect of this will be. I think this is just another example of humans interfering with nature and natural process.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/04/science/crispr-cas9-human-genome-editing-moratorium.html?action=click&contentCollection=science&region=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=8&pgtype=sectionfront&_r=0