Scientists have successfully edited the PCSK9 and HBG genes in human embryos. A Pew poll shows 80% support editing to prevent disease, but only 20% for enhancement. The hard part: deciding where prevention ends and enhancement begins.
Columbia University researchers successfully edited a PCSK9 gene. This is, you know, your LDL, your bad cholesterol, and an HBG gene for hemoglobin in embryos in vitro. The question is, when this gets reliable enough, are we going to start editing our kids?
I think there was a Pew Research study I saw that something like 80% of Americans would support embryo editing for disease prevention, but, you know, only about 20%, I think, supported it for, quote, enhancement. The part that I've never been able to figure out is what's the line between disease prevention and enhancement? So let's say osteoporosis, right? If you had a gene edited to prevent it, you have stronger bones. Stronger bones sounds like an enhancement. I basically think the line is so blurry that people will start with this for disease prevention and then it'll upgrade over time. And I think anything's on the table, even IQ or whatever. It's like, should we have more smart people in the world? Probably. I mean, that seems like a good thing to me. And ethics change, right?
Because if you remember a while ago, IVF was considered immoral in the early days. And now it's, it's enabled millions of families to be formed.
Yeah. But not to state the obvious, but, uh, you know, if you are 7-foot tall or higher, you have a 50% chance of making the NBA. And if you make the NBA, that's a $20 million a year paycheck. So if you're a couple, you're going to go to that Caribbean island and make your 7-foot tall child for economic reasons. You know, think of what could go wrong then. There has to be guardrails around this.
