Little Layla was a pioneer, the first person saved by gene editing; and without the favorable environment created by British scientists and regulators over the past decade, Qasim’s experimental treatment, which gives special properties to cells, would never have been allowed.
With recent advances in gene editing and governmental approvals, the U.K. is set to become the unlikely pioneer in one of the most controversial, yet astonishing spheres of human knowledge: the manipulation of our genetic code. While research labs around the world are working on genetic cures to childhood and adult diseases, most have been wary of interfering with the DNA of a human embryo, fearful of unintended consequences for future generations.
Yet the U.K. achieved a double first in 2016: It became the first country to legally permit replacing part of an embryo with a third person’s genes, and the first to allow genetic modification in humans from the embryo stage.
Opponents of the techniques, including the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) as well as bioethicists and religious leaders, believe they herald a dystopian future of “designer babies”—a world where parents will “play God” by opting to edit their unborn child’s genes to make it stronger, taller and healthier. Molecular biologist and ethicist David King, the founder of British watchdog group Human Genetics Alert, believes that embryo manipulation opens up “for the first time in human history, the possibility of consciously designing human beings, in a myriad of different ways.” A recent report from the Nuffield Council on Bioethics in London found that gene editing—particularly in embryos—demanded further scrutiny. Ethical opposition has arisen especially where, it said, the “scope for unforeseen consequences is considered to be great or editing is regarded as irreversible.”
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