In 2018, Chinese researchers succeeded in manipulating human embryos with the genetic scissors CRISPR. While this offers hope for curing diseases, it also raises ethical issues and the risk of unpredictable mutations. Genetic manipulation technology is advancing, but we need to consider its safety and ethical limitations.
If I marry the love of my life and have children, could I have a son who looks like Leonardo DiCaprio and a daughter who looks like Emma Watson? I thought it was highly unlikely, unless a very small percentage of my good looks genes were passed on to my child, or my wife was a cutie. But here’s the good news: in a few decades, my son could be more handsome than Leonardo DiCaprio, or my daughter could be more beautiful than Emma Watson.
In November 2018, Chinese researchers announced that they had succeeded in manipulating the genes of human embryos using the genetic scissors CRISPR. Less than a year later, on April 11, 2019, researchers at Guangzhou Medical University in China announced that they had once again modified the genome (genetic information). The success rate was low, with only four out of 26 embryos being successfully genetically modified, but the research was thought to be a good step toward disease resistance. However, the world was stunned by China’s back-to-back announcements of genetic modification.
Unlike China, several countries, including Canada, have banned genetic modification of human germ cells. Korea also bans genetic modification of human fertilized eggs under its bioethics law. Last year, the world’s leading genetic engineering researchers called for an end to the use of innovative technologies that edit or modify the genomes of human embryos. As you can see, many countries have taken a stand against genetic engineering. However, genetic modification can make us resistant to diseases such as cancer and HIV, or even give our children the looks and intelligence of celebrities. So why are so many countries still opposed to this technology?
The first and foremost reason is that genetic modification is not yet a mature technology. In April of this year, a Chinese study noted that only four out of 26 embryos were successfully genetically modified. The other 22 embryos had mutations that the Chinese researchers hadn’t intended. Of course, whether the fertilization succeeded or failed, the embryos would not be allowed to develop into human beings. At this point, we have only succeeded in genetic manipulation, and no one can say for sure what mutations the resulting human being will have.
I’m not religious and I don’t believe in God, but I think the creation of a human being is the domain of God, because the human being is an incredibly complex system and a collection of information that we don’t yet know. Our science and technology is growing exponentially, but we still don’t have enough science to understand us.
Let’s say we have the genetic information to create a child with a desired trait, can we be sure that it won’t mutate as it grows up? Can we be confident that the child will grow up to have offspring that won’t have mutations again? To answer these questions, we would have to use humans as guinea pigs. This inevitably raises ethical questions about respect for human life.
So, assuming that all of these considerations are taken into account, what if advances in genetic engineering allow us to select our descendants? Would it be right for our society to embrace this technology and send only healthy, beautiful, and handsome descendants into the world? Another question arises: if this process proceeds, humans will become less genetically diverse. Some futurists say that this genetic sameness will lead to the loss of human diversity and the acquisition of new diseases that will wipe out the human race. We don’t know what the “new disease that will wipe out humanity” will be with our current state of science and technology. In the end, the future is full of uncertainty. Unless a time machine exists and someone travels to the future, we will never be able to resolve this uncertainty.
Scientists have already spoken out about the dangers of mutation, and several movies and books have warned of the dangerous consequences of mutation and genetic manipulation. In the movie “Island,” we see a hypothetical situation where many people use these genetic manipulation techniques to create their own clones. The clones live in hope on a fantasy island called Island, where they are isolated and forced to wear the same clothes, eat the same food, and do the same work. When the original human develops a problem, such as an illness, the clones are used to create a healthy body of their own. However, the researchers who manage the clones overlook the curiosity of the clones, and the isolated facility is destroyed by the curious protagonist. Although the movie is about clones, I think it’s also a warning about the horrors of human genetic engineering. The dehumanized humans who take care of their own safety by creating a clone showed that the director was worried about the future humans who will be created by abusing genetic engineering technology.
The same is true in the movie “Gattaca. The older brother Vincent, whose genetic information is inferior to his younger brother’s due to genetic manipulation, dreams of becoming an astronaut, but he almost gives up because society doesn’t accept inferior genes, but he perseveres. There is a lot of content in between, but I was most impressed by this line from Vincent.
“Anything is possible, it’s up to you to decide if it’s possible or not, right?”
What this line implies is that not everyone with good genes will have a good destiny. Similarly, people with inferior genes are not necessarily born with a bad fate. In the same way, we can’t be sure that a genetically engineered world would be as bright as the movie suggests. In a society that is already unequal, genetic modification will become another way to judge people.
Another important issue to be concerned about is human dignity. Consider simply how we came into the world: our parents meet, fall in love, and marry. After marriage, our father’s sperm will compete to reach our mother’s egg first, and the chosen sperm and egg will meet, fertilize, implant in the womb, and after about 10 months of parental care, a new life, us, will be born. It is a difficult process in which many competitions and circumstances must be satisfied for a life to be born. Human dignity can be explained in many ways, but the above are some of the reasons why we are valuable and have dignity. But what if the development of genetic manipulation technology makes it too easy for us to be born with good genes, and as a result, the preciousness of life will lose its value? The creation of a new life would become as simple as creating a game character, and most people would lose their humanity, as seen in the movie Ireland.
Of course, these are not the only bad consequences of genetic engineering. My concern is with the problems that could arise from the unchecked development of genetic engineering without the proper limits of the technology. That’s why I think it’s important to find the right balance. Future advances in genetic modification could be used to put humans at risk of disease or to treat various cancers. In fact, Dr. Sergio Quezada of The Institute of Cancer Research, University College London, UK, has succeeded in cutting out genes in immune cells in tumors that were not activated by cancer cells and replacing them with genes that can fight cancer. While this has yet to be tested in humans, it’s a promising sign that genetic manipulation can be used to beat cancer. The Chinese research mentioned earlier is also raising hopes for a cure for HIV. In this way, human genetic modification will allow us to look forward to a healthy and disease-free life. However, there will always be ethical issues.
So, how do we choose between these ethical issues and using genetic modification to cure diseases? As with any issue where there are conflicting opinions, I think it’s important to find a middle ground. We all want to live in a disease-free world, but the extent to which we allow genetic engineering to do so will be a question for the future, as it will need to be based on experiments using living beings. Therefore, there are many risks that we should be aware of before we rush to have a daughter like Emma Watson or a son like Leonardo DiCaprio. Before we rush to advance the technology of human genetic modification, we need to reflect deeply on various ethical, social, and scientific issues.
In the movie Deadpool, the main character Wade is genetically engineered to have an immortal body, but at the same time, his face is disfigured and he is forced to wear a mask. Just like in the movie, scientific advances have benefited humans, but there have always been side effects, so if human genetic modification is to be good news, we should be prepared for some bad news.
