Genetic Engineering remains a subject of controversy. W. Saletan described the recent conference from the Genetics and Public Policy center, provocately called "Babies by Design".
Your doctor doesn't want that, because a genetic change that's helpful in one part of your body might be harmful in another. As the conference proceeds, we learn how to dress up this problem in the bloodless language of science. We hear about "insertional mutagenesis" and "aberrant activation of oncogenes." We hear of kids who got leukemia from gene therapy. Oops.
However, the potential is there for significant benefits.
The conversation moves around the table. Gregory Stock, a biotech apostle from UCLA, predicts that within 10 to 20 years, human eggs will be screened for personality traits. Beyond that, he looks forward to artificial chromosomes.
But significant controversial issues remain
I sympathize with Schatten until he opens the subsequent panel discussion by envisioning with excitement a world divided between "reproductive embryos" and "therapeutic embryos." The latter would be mined for stem cells, he explains. What about the humanity of embryos consigned to research? Schatten says he and other stem cell investigators "don't believe those are human subjects."
The issue of using human embryos for research will continue to be a significant roadblock to progress.
