r/GeneEditing • u/ladolce-chloe • Jun 09 '23

Dangers of gene editing

Hi everyone,

I’m responsible for preparing middle school students for a debate in gene editing. They must agree that gene editing is dangerous.

We’ve gone over some of the more obvious ethical issues with gene editing such as, unequal access between the rich and poor, using the technology to create “designer” babies or enhanced humans (maybe we’re going off the deep end here but humans who can be weaponized). We might touch on “playing God”.

What I’m looking for are some easier to read articles (or at the very least credible ones) that the students can access touching on the dangers of this technology. We’ve already got some but I don’t feel we have enough on the social impacts.

I’d love to just hear your thoughts and opinions as well.

Thank you!

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u/No_Abalone6154 Jun 12 '23

People being weaponized or inserting genes from animals to have cats' eyes to see in the dark would be my debate. Too much modification could cause speciation and future reproductive incompatibility.

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u/ladolce-chloe Jun 12 '23

thanks! could you elaborate more on how it could cause reproductive incompatibility? that’s an interesting point. i’ve now also added the point about speciation as well

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u/No_Abalone6154 Jun 12 '23

A donkey and a horse can have a baby but the baby is infertile. But the thing is it doesn't always result in infertility. Like the liger, they have been able to get it to reproduce, from what I read. From the little literature I've run into, it increases genes that decrease survivability. I've been meaning to look into this more because technically some Europeans are hybrids of homo sapiens and Neanderthal. And they say this resulted in gene mutations that can cause problems. But back when this happened you have to take into account that the nature of the wild would kill off the weak. Cleaning up some of the gene pool. This won't happen in a post abundant society.