A new gene therapy has been given the green light to be used as a treatment for spinal muscular atrophy.
At the moment, the price tag sits firmly around $2 million which is still far cheaper than the sum cost of other treatments required for this disease which result in the children seldom living past early childhood anyway. This represents one step closer to the broader acceptance of human genetic modification.
Thoughts?
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A great achievement, but at this price point of course unaffordable for most. Therefore, I don't see it benefitting society that much, at least until it becomes less expensive.
I do agree it's a step in the right direction w.r.t. attitude towards gene editing. This technology has the potential for a big positive impact on humanity.
Somewhat hasn’t read his Uncle Ted
Enlighten me
Some more or less relevant snippets
washingtonpost.com
DIY gene editing kits
Online tutorials provided
You can learn to do what they charge millions for from your bedroom
So basically you're doing what liberals do and try to inflate and foil some work of fiction and speculation into muh inevitable disaster if you don't ban/bash X.
I'll have 3 Aryan ubermensch children, please. Chop chop, before the Chinks do it first.
they already have
So the potential upsides include better health, maybe increased cognitive ability to favour higher production.
Potential downsides result from the control over what genes are edited and in what way. It could be used to create obedient humans who serve those in power (those in control of the gene editing).
Could be a similar story to nuclear weapons. Mutual assured destruction can protect us, but if it goes wrong once we're all fucked. With gene editing we could have some nice health benefits for a while, but if it goes wrong once we're fucked. Or maybe increased intelligence through gene editing makes our species more resilient to a major fuck up and sets us up for great success. Could go either way if you ask me.