CRISPR gene editing now approved

[arapahoepark]

I am curious as to your thoughts, especially the more science oriented members, on this.

U.S. approves first gene-editing treatment, Casgevy, for sickle cell disease

Casgevy uses the Nobel Prize-winning technology CRISPR to treat sickle cell disease, a blood disorder that affects about 100,000 Americans.

www.cnbc.com

While sounding like a good way to combat genetic diseases, Pandora's box seems to be open. Am I wrong?

 

[No Other Name]

You aren't wrong in my opinion. I have been horrified as the news of the developing growth in genetic engineering seems to be exponential. Praying for God to stop them but it seems to be nearly limitless in all of its wonder and its sheer terror.

I have serious doubts if China actually shut down their gene-editing of babies in 2018. The world was horrified at the genetically-engineered twins and the third girl after them and everyone almost unanimously called them out as unethical and immoral (how they can decide that with an atheistic materialistic worldview is beyond logic yet thankfully the general outcry was in the right back then).

I have no doubt that no one in power here was really morally outraged back then; they just wanted this to be slower and more adaptable for the general public.

In 2018, China simply had "the fire under the pot too high for Western-civilized frogs"

and now here comes the atheist Western medicine and their first (of many) iterations for how to numb the public consciousness to this new control mechanism.

In the future, we will be sitting in a doctor's office and we will be offered a new method for dealing with a disease. It is important to remember two things at that time:

1) What horrors were committed on the unborn to learn this new method?

2) Even if you reason that the genie cannot exactly be put back in the bottle, what new Nietzschean horrors await our next few generations if we do not take a principled stand today and say no?

Now I do believe God can and will use this to save lives - physically and spiritually - to his glory despite the evils used in bringing it.

But I don't want my great-grandchildren to ignore the general Biblical principles of covenant obligations for daily living to increase in health and wealth in place of a new medical idol that promises blessings in life just as much as God does - or more.

One cannot both serve God and pharma and as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

 

[davejonescue]

Yeah, this stuff is scary. Saw a news story the other day about a lab in Dallas who hopes to bring back a handful of extinct species within the next 5 years. I think the Woolly Mammoth and the Dodo Bird are a couple of them.

 

[DanSSwing]

Yeah, this stuff is scary. Saw a news story the other day about a lab in Dallas who hopes to bring back a handful of extinct species within the next 5 years. I think the Woolly Mammoth and the Dodo Bird are a couple of them.

I'd love to see a mammoth and dodo bird, but keep this away from humans.

 

[davejonescue]

I'd love to see a mammoth and dodo bird, but keep this away from humans.

The problem is they wont. It will lead to "create your own baby" at a kiosk like ordering a Redbox vid. Pick your sex, hair-color, eye-color, and skin-tone. For every piece of legislation that may put rules into place, there are 10 billionaires that dont play by the them.

 

[ZackF]

This is promising for all kinds of things. It could will be dangerous and some folks could will use it for evil. Regardless, I hope Cystic Fibrosis, Tay Sacs and other scourges can be treated.

 

[SeanPatrickCornell]

The same technology that provides millions of people with electricity was used to annihilate tens of thousands of people in two cities at the close of World War II.

This is like any other thing made my man. Used correctly, it has an enormous upside in terms of relieving or even eliminating human suffering.

But used wrongly, the negative impact can scarcely be grasped.

 

[Semper Fidelis]

In this case, if you read what they are doing, they are trying to correct a genetic defect that causes sickle cell anemia. It involves a months-long process of infusing corrected cells into the patient in order to correct a condition that leads to debilitating pain and death for many. Those with sickle-cell often have to endure lifelong blood transfusions if they receive any treatment at all.

There are obvious ethical implications of gene editing and we ought to reject "designer children", etc, but I fail to see how something that can be used ethically to save a person's life and involves ameliorating effects of the Fall is, in itself, wrong.

I suffer from Stargardt's disease and have a genetic anomaly that essentially causes the rods in my macula to die out so I have no central vision. There are experimental treatments for similar diseases of the retina that use viruses to transport revised genetic code to the eyes to (in some cases) reverse blindness.

I, for one, am grateful for advances like this. My daughter would have surely died at childbirth without the aid of heroic intervention by a NICU - technology not available until recent times. My son is a Type-1 diabetic and I would have mourned his death long ago in a different age. My wife has MS and lost vision in one eye for a time. Her MS is being kept under control by treatments that are relatively recent.

We do not need to trust "science" first and foremost, but I do think God for advances that save and preserve life.

 

[arapahoepark]

In this case, if you read what they are doing, they are trying to correct a genetic defect that causes sickle cell anemia. It involves a months-long process of infusing corrected cells into the patient in order to correct a condition that leads to debilitating pain and death for many. Those with sickle-cell often have to endure lifelong blood transfusions if they receive any treatment at all.

There are obvious ethical implications of gene editing and we ought to reject "designer children", etc, but I fail to see how something that can be used ethically to save a person's life and involves ameliorating effects of the Fall is, in itself, wrong.

I suffer from Stargardt's disease and have a genetic anomaly that essentially causes the rods in my macula to die out so I have no central vision. There are experimental treatments for similar diseases of the retina that use viruses to transport revised genetic code to the eyes to (in some cases) reverse blindness.

I, for one, am grateful for advances like this. My daughter would have surely died at childbirth without the aid of heroic intervention by a NICU - technology not available until recent times. My son is a Type-1 diabetic and I would have mourned his death long ago in a different age. My wife has MS and lost vision in one eye for a time. Her MS is being kept under control by treatments that are relatively recent.

We do not need to trust "science" first and foremost, but I do think God for advances that save and preserve life.

I read it. I understand it's potential help. That said, I am finding it's potential long term consequences something that should send off alarm bells.

 

[DanSSwing]

In this case, if you read what they are doing, they are trying to correct a genetic defect that causes sickle cell anemia. It involves a months-long process of infusing corrected cells into the patient in order to correct a condition that leads to debilitating pain and death for many. Those with sickle-cell often have to endure lifelong blood transfusions if they receive any treatment at all.

There are obvious ethical implications of gene editing and we ought to reject "designer children", etc, but I fail to see how something that can be used ethically to save a person's life and involves ameliorating effects of the Fall is, in itself, wrong.

I agree with this. My criticism is primarily leveled against experimentation on healthy babies and unborn embryos (similar to the experiments they will do to try to clone mammoths and dodos). But as someone who has been in debilitating pain, I'm fine with experimental efforts (within reason) to relieve/cure it.

 

[Ploutos]

I suffer from Stargardt's disease and have a genetic anomaly that essentially causes the rods in my macula to die out so I have no central vision. There are experimental treatments for similar diseases of the retina that use viruses to transport revised genetic code to the eyes to (in some cases) reverse blindness.

You are not the first person I know to have this condition. A friend developed it in high school. Thanks to modern medical advances she was able to attend college and law school and now has a driver's license. Incidentally she went to law school at Liberty.

 

[J.L. Allen]

It's interesting to see how medical innovations come about and bring such good into the world by alleviating suffering and creating opportunities for people where doors were largely closed. It's also interesting to see how the thin and fragile balance is often lost as innovations are used in ways that bring about new suffering or by closing doors of opportunity.

The movie Gattaca dealt with some of these themes all the way back in the late '90s. It's worth watching (with discretion) or at least reading an overview of the plot.

 

[ZackF]

It's interesting to see how medical innovations come about and bring such good into the world by alleviating suffering and creating opportunities for people where doors were largely closed. It's also interesting to see how the thin and fragile balance is often lost as innovations are used in ways that bring about new suffering or by closing doors of opportunity.

The movie Gattaca dealt with some of these themes all the way back in the late '90s. It's worth watching (with discretion) or at least reading an overview of the plot.

Gattaca was excellent!

 

[arapahoepark]

It's interesting to see how medical innovations come about and bring such good into the world by alleviating suffering and creating opportunities for people where doors were largely closed. It's also interesting to see how the thin and fragile balance is often lost as innovations are used in ways that bring about new suffering or by closing doors of opportunity.

The movie Gattaca dealt with some of these themes all the way back in the late '90s. It's worth watching (with discretion) or at least reading an overview of the plot.

Gattaca was excellent!

Love the movie!

 

[Semper Fidelis]

The movie Gattaca dealt with some of these themes all the way back in the late '90s. It's worth watching (with discretion) or at least reading an overview of the plot.

I was thinking of that movie as well.