Guest Post by John Stossel
Soon, some of you will try to make “better babies.”
Already, people pay labs to examine embryos so they can pick ones with DNA they like. Some screen for gender or eye color. Some screen out certain diseases.
So far, they’ve been limited to selecting genes that exist in the parents. They haven’t designed genes. But that is about to change.
Chinese scientists recently altered DNA in human embryos.
The designed babies — twin sisters — were born with immunity to common strains of HIV, claims the scientist responsible. (The added gene might also shorten lifespans. Most scientists say it’s too soon to gene-edit humans safely.)
“He was put under house arrest … and the Chinese are right to punish that scientist,” says Sheldon Krimsky of Tufts’ medical school in my new video.
Most Americans agree.
In one STAT-Harvard poll, 83% said creating more intelligent or stronger babies via gene-editing should be illegal.
“Of course they say that,” says Georgetown philosophy professor Jason Brennan. “When you have any kind of intervention into the body that’s new, people think it’s icky. And they take that feeling of ‘ickiness’ and they moralize and think it’s a moral objection.”
Those intuitions threaten medical innovation, says Brennan.
Jenna Bush Hager, daughter of the 43rd president, voiced her moral concerns on Megan Kelly’s TV show. She asked, “I mean where does it stop? There should be things that we leave up to God.”
“I’m not sure I’m going to take her word for it.” scoffs Brennan. “If God appears before me and says, ‘Don’t do this,’ I’ll stop.”
But why would God say stop?
We already give our kids music lessons, braces, tutoring, karate lessons — any advantage we can. Why not also give them better genes?
Imagine, says Brennan, a world where people are much smarter — maybe smart enough to avoid wars, to take us easily to other planets and to do other things we can’t even imagine.
“Maybe we’ll turn them into X-Men,” he says, referring to the mutant superheroes in films like the just-released “Dark Phoenix.”
It would be good to have real X-Men around, saving lives.
Another objection to “customizing” babies is that at first only rich people will be able to pay for it. “This is going to be a new way to create disparities in wealth,” says Krimsky.
Brennan counters that you could say this about most new things.
“Every bit of technology that we enjoy today follows the same pattern. You look in your automobile, and you have a CD player or an MP3 player and a GPS. … All of these things, when they first became available, were incredibly expensive. … The rich pay the infrastructure to develop the technologies, and then they spread … become commonplace for everybody to have.”
While the rich do often get there first, they also pay for the expensive failures, and they help fund the technologies that get everyone else there second.
Rich people got airplane travel and Lasik surgery first, but I wouldn’t want those things banned because of that. A free, competitive market is the best way to ensure prices come down.
“Even if the price came down for this,” claims Krimsky, “it would create more injustice.”
I accused Krimsky of being an old fuddy-duddy who likes serving on government committees and fears change. In the ’70s, he opposed in vitro fertilization.
“I love change!” he responded. “But … there are some things we shouldn’t be fiddling around with.”
Most countries’ governments agree. They’ve banned creation of designer babies.
But it’s going to happen anyway.
The U.S. bans sale of kidneys, observes Brennan, but “that doesn’t mean people don’t buy kidneys. They just go and buy them elsewhere.”
Banning designer baby technology, he predicts, “will just guarantee that it will be available only to the super-rich and only to the politically well-connected.”
I think Brennan’s right. Designed babies are coming. If not here, then the genetic engineering will happen in India, Africa, somewhere.
The U.S. shouldn’t keep this technology from those of us who want to give it a try.
Our descendants should have the right to use science to make themselves all that they can be.
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Read somewhere: knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit, wisdom is knowing not to include it in a fruit salad.
Read somewhere else: imagine a group of apes trying to create a super-ape. Would they go for stronger bones, muscles, jaws, and teeth; or would they go for a pathetically weak shrimp with a large brain.
Humans have a hard enough time understanding themselves – I don’t see them understanding something more complex well enough to do a good job creating it….at this time.
It is probably coming, but at this point I would prefer gathering information and studying it for a while.
I doubt we will see the patience needed to use this approach.
The rich pay the price so everyone else can get there second.
Oh, you mean like my co-worker who is about to file bankruptcy because he had live-if-you-do, die-if-you-don’t heart surgery that his insurance won’t come close to covering? I guess living bankrupt may be better than the alternative, but in the world of modern American healthcare, the trickle down benefits seem to be just enough to keep poor suckers alive. And that is if those in charge of insurance companies even allow the procedures to take place in the first place.
Now that’s progress.
“It would be good to have real X-Men around, saving lives.”
Because it’s always about saving lives… such would never ever be weaponized to inflict harm on or try to control anyone.
“Kkkhhhaaaaaaaaaannnnnn!”
-Captain James Tiberius Kirk
William??? – I must have missed something, somewhere.
Yeah, WTF?
I think I was planning to attribute it to Shatner and changed my mind mid-thought.
On occasion, my brain runs through two thoughts while my fingers are typing one, creating an unusual hybrid 🙂
The bodies that exist on this planet right now got there along with all the rest of us, through NATURAL MEANS. We are able to co-exist on the planet because this all came about with a certain level of symbiosis. Eating certain foods will kill certain species, certain viral species can kill as well. But we made it this far because the NATURAL CONTROLS that are in place, allowed us all to co-exist.
When a mad scientist screws with the genes in a manner that mother nature/god would NEVER have allowed or enabled, what is created is a complete unknown. Who knows what this person’s immune system will be producing, who knows what compounds will be spewed into the air as this person breathes, coughs, etc. Who knows what viruses will find a welcome incubator in such a body that the rest of us cannot handle at all. Who knows what sexually-transmitted diseases this person might be able to spread. The number of unknowns is limitless.
But what is known today is that when something goes wrong in the process of creating a human being and growing it from the initial fertilized egg to birth, nature typically takes care of the problem and the embryo/fetus, etc. dies. A moth cannot reproduce with a tomato, yet GMO tomatoes now contain moth DNA for some purpose. We are only beginning to see the negative ecological and health impacts of these plants, their pollen, etc. on our world.
Playing god in this manner puts us all at risk. Sadly John as always, believes in the adage “if you can do it, you should do it” as if there are NEVER any consequences, and that naysayers are the equivalent of 18th century luddites. We live in a fully-interconnected world, in which one carrier of a plague could easily spread it to the entire globe in weeks via air transit, etc.
I could give a shit about science producing “superior” intelligence, etc. I do give a shit about science accidentally producing “plague boy” and unleashing him on an unsuspecting world….all “because they could.”
If you are a fan of Star Trek: The Next Generation, check out the episode “Unnatural Selection” to see what I am talking about. Sure, its fantasy and science fiction, but the premise (and the concern) is valid. (Season 2 episode 7).