Make way for "designer kids"!
Bioethicist Kevin Smith: "Our genome is not perfect. It's time to fix it"
Sergey Kolenov, Hi-tech+
As the anniversary of the birth of the first genetically edited children approaches, scientists and journalists are once again returning to the question of the ethics of this technology. For example, one of the creators of CRISPR, Jennifer Dudna, in her article for Science, called for preventing the creation of "designer children".
Many of her colleagues share this point of view. They believe that gene editing in medicine should be used to correct defects in somatic cells, while the germ line — sperm and eggs — should remain unchanged.
Kevin Smith, a bioethicist at the University of Abertay (Scotland), fundamentally disagrees with this approach. In his article in the journal Bioethics (Time to start intervening in the human germline? A utilitarian perspective) he states that interference with the germ line is not just permissible, but also necessary.
Our genome is far from ideal. Evolution could not have foreseen that people would live so long, so it did not provide them with protection from cancer and cardiovascular diseases, the scientist points out.
Smith believes that gene editing should correct this gap and prevent such diseases. This means that interference with the germ line is ethically justified. But the researcher considers the prohibitions and restrictions that hinder the development of this technology to be a mistake.
At the same time, Smith does not approve of the semi-underground experiments of the Chinese pioneer He Jiankui. Scientists working to improve the human genome should be responsible and open. This is the only way technology can benefit people.
The scientist also admits that the disgraced Chinese geneticist has caused great reputational damage to the entire industry. In order to rectify the situation and work out the best ways to move forward, the scientific community should freeze projects on gene editing of embryos for a couple of years, Smith believes.
At the beginning of this summer, Russian biologist Denis Rebrikov announced plans to correct a mutation in embryos that causes congenital deafness. However, in the fall it became known that in the near future the scientist does not plan to create genetically edited children.
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