Editing the human genome will give us unlimited possibilities to improve the next generations. What can we afford?

Increasingly better and more accurate methods of DNA editing mean that more and more people let their imaginations run wild, trying to predict what bioengineering will allow us to do in the future. One of such people is the futurist Amy Webb, who recently wrote a book called The Genesis Machine in collaboration with geneticist Andrew Hessel. What is the Creation Machine about?

About the so-called purposefully designing life, i.e. editing the DNA of the organism being created in such a way as to eliminate as many disadvantages as possible and replace them with advantages. Genetically, of course.

Webb and Hessel believe that gene editing methods will be safe enough to modify human embryos. We already had one experiment of this type, but it was carried out illegally. The authors of the Genesis Machine, however, want fully legal methods that would deprive us of certain limitations imposed by biology.

The number of parents would be to be determined. So is the intelligence quotient

The combination of parent A and parent B genes seems unfortunate and carries the emergence of X congenital genetic diseases? No problem, let’s add some code from parent C, that should fix this problem. Parent D insisted that he wanted the child to be only his? In theory, that would also be possible.

I emphasize: in theory, because both Hessel and Webb openly admit that they do not yet know the full capabilities of gene editing technologies such as CRISPR. However, the authors of Genesis Machine believe in “possibilities” and “options”, which we will soon be able to afford thanks to bioengineering.

Also read: Gender selection in mice has become very easy. Scientists have discovered a way to edit genes that is 100% effective

Anyway, it is not only about removing genetic diseases. Perhaps some countries will decide, for example, that each child born in their territory, or only some part of them, will be modified to increase their intelligence. Or to improve physical characteristics. Theoretically, it is possible, although it sounds like it was taken straight out of some dystopian sci-fi universe.

Editing the human genome will also allow for new therapies

So before we start creating genetically modified armies, the first thing that human use should focus on, according to the authors, is making it easier for people who really want to become parents to father a child. A very safe point of view.

– Right now, creating a baby depends on chance and coincidence or having enough money for multiple IVF cycles. In 2022, it’s shockingly hard to make a baby. It shouldn’t be like that, says Amy Webb.

Of course, these are not all the possibilities that theoretically will allow us to edit human DNA in the future. However, it is a perfect excuse for the discussion that we will have to hold sooner or later. What to do with the ready-to-use human genotype editing technology? What can we afford? To what extent will it be allowed to tamper with our source code? How will each religion respond to these opportunities? There are many such issues and we will have to deal with them sooner or later.