Gene in human embryos altered by Chinese researchers

Genetic engineering also caused unintended changes, so far from ready for clinical use

This article comes from the magazine ScienceNews and it was published the last 23^rd April 2015. It could be classified in a “genetic engineering” section and its writer is Tina Hesman Saey.

 Glossary

-         -  Nonviable: inviable

-         -  Hurdle: obstacle/impediment

-         HBB gene: provides instructions for making a protein called beta-globin. Beta-globin is a component (subunit) of a larger protein called hemoglobin, which is located inside red blood cells. Hemoglobin normally consists of four protein subunits: two subunits of beta-globin and two subunits of another protein called alpha-globin.

-         - Moratorium: moratoria/aplaçament

Summary

This article talks about a very innovative concept, which is genetic engineering. Should we modify the embryos if any disease is detected in the first days of development? Where does this modification stop? This is a very actual matter, and we should know if editing our embryos will make science take a step forward or it will cause more concerns than we thought.

Critical Review

I couldn’t help but choosing this article when I read the headline at the webpage. This seems a very concerning topic to talk about nowadays and we have also studied it recently in class.

During history, humanity has never known whether the pregnant women was going to have a baby with a mental disorder, a malformation or some genetic alteration, but nowadays researchers have developed methods to detect them and, why not avoiding them before the baby comes to life? This is a concerning topic to think about: would you give birth to a child, even knowing that it will live the whole life with a disease?

It seems obvious that nobody would like to bring up a child with a disorder, but we don’t know where to put the line yet. This study made by Chinese researchers has proved that we’re not yet prepared to modify human genes, as it would suppose a big change in our lives. What could end up happening is that parents aiming to have a child would use genetic engineering to create and shape “the perfect son”: a blue-eyed, athletic, intelligent and tall son. One of the matters is that this science could end up being a business, due to the fact that only rich people could afford it, and children would start to be very similar.