“Designer” Babies: A Look into Procedures and Ethics Behind CRISPR Technology Veronica Bratsos Course: Human Biocultural Evolution Professor: Tj Gundling, Community and Social Justice Studies Student: Veronica Bratsos Essay: “Designer” Babies: A Look into Procedures and Ethics Behind CRISPR Technology
Assignment: Students were asked to write a research paper on a topic related to the course. One optional topic, “Post-Humans in the Anthropocene,” prompted
this examination of the research and ethics of the possibility of “designer” babies using genetic editing (e.g. CRISPR).
Genes are often viewed as the building blocks for human life. Over the past century, there has been an abundance of technological advancements in the world of genetics. While there are a variety of techniques used in gene therapy, one of the most prominent developments in gene-editing is CRISPR technology. CRISPR is relatively new and has massive potential to change humanity forever. With this, the science community has coined the term “designer” babies, which refers to babies that are genetically altered to eradicate a condition and/or defect, as well as to make sure certain gene variants are present for desired traits. The main goal of this research paper is to examine the steps it takes to bring a geneticallyedited child into the world as well as the ethical debate associated with the rise of such technology.
1980s but its development as a gene-editing tool had not begun until the early 21st century. The acronym CRISPR stands for “Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats”, which is a basic description of the targeted genetic sequences (Barman et al., 2020). The process is divided into three phases: adaptation, expression & maturation, and interference; “In CRISPR locus, each ‘repeat’ sequence is flanked by ‘spacer’ sequence and these spacers match with the genomic sequences found in virus, plasmid or pathogen” (Barman et al., 2020). CRISPR technology is a growing force in the field of genetics and is still subject to development as more research and experiments are conducted. The journey from meeting with a genetic counselor to bringing a genetically-edited child into the world is not an easy one as it is intensive and time-consuming.
CRISPR technology was first discovered in the late 93
