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VOLUME 2 , ISSUE 2 ( July-December, 2018 ) > List of Articles

MEDICAL ETHICS, LAW AND SOCIETY

The Rise of Designer Babies: In Defiance with Nature! CRISPR-Cas9-A New Gene Editing Tool

Simranpreet Kaur, Madhu Nagpal

Keywords : CRISPR babies, CRISPR-Cas9, Ethical considerations, Gene editing, Genetic manipulation

Citation Information : Kaur S, Nagpal M. The Rise of Designer Babies: In Defiance with Nature! CRISPR-Cas9-A New Gene Editing Tool. Curr Trends Diagn Treat 2018; 2 (2):130-132.

DOI: 10.5005/jp-journals-10055-0054

License: CC BY-NC 4.0

Published Online: 01-12-2018

Copyright Statement:  Copyright © 2018; The Author(s).


Abstract

A new genome-editing tool, clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat (CRISPR)-Cas9, could transform the field of biology, and a recent news on the birth of a first gene-edited baby has created a lot of media hype. But, why such a big hype for CRISPR-Cas9, as scientists have already been tinkering with genomes for decades. The answer is in the technology of CRISPR, which is far better than older techniques for gene splicing and editing, doing the work with unprecedented precision, efficiency, and flexibility and just raising the fear of the development of designer babies. Germline editing means editing sperm, eggs, or embryos, i.e., altering the DNA of future generations even before birth, putting a question mark on the line of morality and ethics.

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