Jeff Wang Blog

With every solution arises newfound problems.

Gene editing has the potential to eliminate genetic and hereditary diseases. It has the potential to eradicate chronic illnesses like dwarfism or down syndrome, mutations of the cell that causes cancer, and other disorders, like potentially allergies or eczema (which would be amazing for me).

But then there is the other side: what stops people from abusing this power?

The wealthy and fortunate will have another way of distinguishing themselves, and can “edit” their babies to has preferred qualities.

Is there no place in this world for people with down syndrome, or dwarfism, that gene editing would eliminate babies being born with those traits?

There is already an imbalance of boys born vs. girls, and that imbalance can be even greater if we hand certain populations the ability to tweak a few chromosomes.

Who will draw the line to such a controversial topic?