Galaxy999 t1_ireq4f0 wrote on October 7, 2022 at 2:37 PM

Why are people afraid of genetic editing? If you are, nobody force you to do it. Life is not a gamble unless you want zero control of it.

Lou-Saydus t1_irf70sl wrote on October 7, 2022 at 4:43 PM

I think a lot of the fear stems from the fact that genetic changes are heritable and in some cases, contagious. When we start editing DNA directly, we're introducing a new biological process that has never existed in history, and thus could never be evolved against. Because artificial gene editing is an entirely new process from a biological view, there are no safety mechanisms evolved into our genome. In theory there could be great harm due to unintended consequences much like historical cases of european settlers wiping out native populations via disease, without even trying.

Beli_Mawrr t1_irgek5v wrote on October 7, 2022 at 10:22 PM

I like this argument but people forget that evolution, how these things originally started, is actually pretty terrible. Yes it got us here, but it took a billion years or so. So I think we could probably do a better job than evolution.

Galaxy999 t1_irgeoyk wrote on October 7, 2022 at 10:23 PM

Well said but every thing has good or bad sides and this is not genetically change for entire race. There are always pioneers going to try and other watch and decided whether to follow. It is on every discovery/invention/event of human history. Some never had breakthrough and some created weapons can wipe out the humans. Nothing would prevent any genetic genius to try - in public or under private funding. After all, almost every one wants genetic edge for themselves or their children - even religious folks. Just not every one would go in with first a few waves…

1wan_shi_tong t1_irhzap0 wrote on October 8, 2022 at 9:11 AM

Woah there. Genetic changes aren't heritable. Not when they're done in body cells that is. There's a difference between the body cells and the sex cells aka. sperm and eggs. You can change the cells of the mothers or fathers body however you like but it won't have any impact on the offspring. You can only make heritable changes if you modify the sperm or egg cells. And genetic changes being "contagious" makes absolutely no sense.

eilertokyo t1_irgxc6d wrote on October 8, 2022 at 1:14 AM

Heritability of modifications.

Poor specificity and understanding of the consequences. Cure HIV and get some other genetic disorder (usually cancers) down the line because the sequence they used messed up other areas of your DNA.

Speaking more broadly, a genetic arms race to invent super-people. We already toyed with that once in the 40s, and it didn’t go particularly well. There’s a small technological gap between removing viral DNA for HIV and trying to insert or change DNA for unknown reasons. Cure illness? Great. Eugenics when we understand very little about the interconnectedness of our genomes? Playing with fire.