Is gene editing human embryos ethical?
The Future of Embryo Selection Website: https://www.npr.org/podcasts/381443461/the-pulse
Audio: https://whyy-od.streamguys1.com:443/thepulse/thepulse20220610.mp3
My current thinking is that if it's accurate and has well-understood mechanisms for preventing disease, and, most importantly, it's standard for everyone, then it's probably possible to do it ethically. So, those are necessary, but not sufficient, conditions -- you get to some pretty screwed up places if you rope in so-called disorders and use population statistic to identify traits. It's just not clear that these things can be separated linearly such that we're not systematically throwing out useful variation in the human behavioral range by eliminating based on partial information. Hubris may be our downfall here.
@trinsec it's quoted in the podcast episode.
yeah, there is the aspect of people are still going to have children without gene editing. Would they become second-class citizens? Will parents who conceive naturally be considered unethical or even immoral for doing so? Maybe the only way to have fair and universal access would be germ-line editing through a viral vector that prevents gene-linked diseases for everyone infected -- imagine the political upheaval over that.
I sympathize with the guy in the story trying to do gene editing for IVF wanting a good outcome for his kid, but his certainty that this tech is an unambiguous good makes my skin crawl. Like have you *really* thought about it deeply? Maybe you're a *little* biased?
@2ck Sounds like Gattaca, good movie.