📍ARE DESIGNER BABIES DANGEROUS ? 

Tampering with the genetics of producing babies began with Dolly the sheep who became a genetic sensation in 1996. She was cloned by a process called somatic cell nuclear transfer. In this, scientists took a cell from an adult sheep and transferred its DNA into another sheep egg cell from which the nucleus was removed. This embryo grew up to be Dolly, showing for the first time that specialized cells from an adult body could be reprogrammed to create an entirely new organism. Since then scientists have cloned over 20 other mammal species, including cattle, horses, pigs and mice and later, even monkeys.

 

We have come a long way since Dolly, via stem cell therapy and research on human embryos . The latter is governed by the globally accepted 14-Day Rule which prohibits researchers from culturing or researching live human embryos in the lab past 14 days of development. This convention was breached in 2018 by a Chinese scientist Dr. He Jiankui who secretly edited the DNA of twin embryos to make them resistant to HIV. There was an international furore when this was discovered and it led to Dr. Jiankui’s imprisonment for violating medical ethics and regulations. 

 

I have a sense that the earlier scientific outrage seems to be weakening as genetic technologies develop further and the appeal of designer babies refuses to abate. 

The new gene-editing technologies like CRISPR-Cas9 have made it even easier to alter the DNA of human embryos and produce genetically modified babies or ‘designer babies’. It is feared that this prohibited line of research is now being done covertly in more than one lab.

The main scientific goal of creating designer babies is to halt the transmission of heritable diseases but there are already whispered demands to create an infant with certain characteristics that parents consider desirable. This would be the start of the slippery slope.

Apart from grave ethical concerns, the reason why frivolous genetic alteration of the embryo is proscribed is because DNA editing of human embryos often leads to unintentional or “off-target" mutations. This will result in a “cellular mosaic”, meaning not all cells will get altered as intended. These defective changes will be passed down to all future generations, so all descendants of this “designer person” will carry the defect of the cellular mosaic. And we have no idea what impacts this will have.

 

If designer babies and designer adults become a reality in substantial numbers, we can easily imagine that the genetic and physical integrity of homo sapiens will change. How likely is it that this will happen? Hard to say. Covenants and regulations can be/ have been broken as we have seen. And there are plenty of mavericks out there wanting to go out and plant their flag on something outrageous…and forbidden.