Full Frame: Genetic Engineering with Dr. Robert Klitzman

Описание: The mystery of life is now revealed in our genetic code, revolutionizing how we tackle disease, aging and reproduction. Genetic engineering has been crucial in developing vaccines, including for HPV, Ebola and, now, Covid-19. 

But these technologies are raising ethical concerns over just how much humans should be tinkering with their own nature. One area where these concerns have been raised is in assisted reproductive technology. In the United States alone, this market will be worth, by some estimates, more than $45 billion by 2026.  People can now choose egg donors and sperm donors on a host of qualities, from eye and hair color, to education and religion.

"This, of course, gets into the realm of eugenics," said Dr. Robert Klitzman, the director of the Bioethics Masters Program at Columbia University and author of Designing Babies. "The Nazis took it to horrific ends ... so this should be a haunting reminder of the dangers we can get into when we start playing God in these ways."

Already the ability to screen for diseases is exploring inequalities that could only deepen as genetic engineering advances.

"A problem is that we now already, for instance, are screening embryos for diseases like breast cancer. So if you're wealthy, you can and have breast cancer in your family, you could get rid of that gene from your kids and their kids. If you're poor, you can't do that. So in the future, a disease like breast cancer that now unfortunately affects both poor and the wealthy in the future will increasingly just affect the poor," Klitzman said.

Gene editing technologies, like CRISPR, allow for more precise DNA edits to alter a particular trait. However, it’s impossible to tell if only that one trait was altered, or others too that will only be known later in the person’s life.

The advancement of this technology "opens up a whole another world of questions we will increasingly face," Klitzman said.

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