[HN Gopher] The untold story of 'circle of trust' behind world's...
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The untold story of 'circle of trust' behind world's first gene-
edited babies
Author : walterbell
Score : 21 points
Date : 2021-01-30 05:42 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.sciencemag.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.sciencemag.org)
| little_panda wrote:
| I'm feeling bewitched by this entire story of rejection of He
| Jiankui. Could someone here please describe in layman's terms
| what's wrong with the _ethics_ of germline editing?
|
| Edit: yes it's gonna be crazy expensive and 10+ years will pass
| before the tech is ready for mass use, I realize that.
| Nasrudith wrote:
| I got downvoted for expressing this opinion before but the only
| real issues are implementation related.
|
| #1: The technology isn't mature enough and has some
| "mistargetting" that adds or deletes where it shouldn't.
|
| #2: It is a reckless disregard for human life to not do
| generational animal trials before humans. If we cannot say make
| mice redfurred or immune to a mouse disease without major side
| effects like vastly increased cancer risk doing so in humans is
| unconscionable.*
|
| *Medical ethics has a bit of weirdness in that if someone is
| certainly doomed otherwise it is more permissible to try
| something crazy.
|
| If we could accessibly edit DNA mistakes with no more risk or
| difficulty than say preventing blood type mismatch related
| miscarriage then it having a few people with "bad traits
| carried onto offspring" wouldn't be a big deal.
|
| It is often en vogue to complain about it cementing a class
| divide but under that logic education is unethical because it
| priveledges those who can afford it over those who cannot.
| ficklepickle wrote:
| Your attempt at whataboutism failed.
|
| It is not at all equivalent. In developed countries,
| education is accessible to most or all. (The USA is not a
| developed country by this measure)
|
| If you aren't worried about humanity splitting into multiple
| species along economic lines, I don't know what to tell you.
| I guess the film Gattaca was just a fun romp for you? I guess
| you must assume you will be one of the "haves" and to hell
| with everyone else, if you get yours?
| ficklepickle wrote:
| We don't know all the potential implications. These genes will
| be passed on to their children. What if it causes disease?
|
| Not to mention the splitting of humanity into separate species,
| based on wealth.
|
| It is a whole mess of ethical concerns. I am astonished that
| you can't see that.
| JesseMReeves wrote:
| Human overconfidence about sums it up.
| mechEpleb wrote:
| It boils down to the fact that there are large potential (if
| improbable) downsides to messing with DNA, and people have a
| strong cognitive bias against actively inflicting harm vis a
| vis just allowing harm to happen on its own.
|
| I personally don't think it's possible to prevent this kind of
| thing in the long term, so everything ranging from edited
| children born with horrible disabilities to deleting some
| potentially beneficial mutation paths in the human genome from
| existence is going to happen anyway.
| 1996 wrote:
| People don't like that it's permanent, and transmitted.
|
| If you have money, you can make your kids AIDS (and Cholera,
| and Smallpox) resistant.
|
| They see that as "unfair", and conveniently forget money buy
| high education and network.
|
| Some other people disagree for religious reason - they say it's
| "playing god", but I do not understand their arguments.
| Humanity has done selective breeding for centuries, and nobody
| ever complained.
|
| It's just doing the same with better methods, as the CCR5
| mutation discussed in the article was not created by humans,
| but naturally selected.
| gmfawcett wrote:
| > Humanity has done selective breeding for centuries, and
| nobody ever complained.
|
| Nobody has ever complained about eugenics? About master races
| vs. inferior breeds of human, or about hereditary caste
| systems? I think you need to brush up on your history before
| making such claims.
| 1996 wrote:
| > After his talk, He immediately drove back to Shenzhen, and his
| circle of trust began to disintegrate
|
| Sad to see how the West keep pushing it's agenda and values down
| the throat of other countries.
|
| Hopefully China will keep advancing science, while the West goes
| into another dark age due to its religions.
| cat199 wrote:
| > Hopefully China will keep advancing science, while the West
| goes into another dark age due to its religions.
|
| .. given this and the uighur thing, they certainly do seem to
| have a knack for atheist eugenics. Opium of the masses and the
| inevitable march of dialectical materialism, amirite?
| 1996 wrote:
| > Opium of the masses and the inevitable march of dialectical
| materialism, amirite?
|
| You have different values, good for you.
|
| Some of us prefer science and progress. You live in your
| country with your values, please do not export them on us and
| we will do the same.
|
| The rest of the world is free to opt in China generosity. I
| am sure one belt one road will help Africa more than all your
| charities and religious missions combined.
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