In a world first, Chinese scientists have reported editing the genomes of human embryos. The results are published1 in the online journal Protein & Cell and confirm widespread rumours that such experiments had been conducted — rumours that sparked a high-profile debate last month2, 3 about the ethical implications of such work.
(Read the complete article from Nature here)
The first thought that came to my mind when I heard the News was 'is this for real?!'.
Rumours had been circulating that scientists were experimenting with human Embryos by attempting to edit the genetic sequence of the cells. This has now been proven beyond reasonable doubt.
While the theory that being able to identify and rectify problematic genes that result in genetic illnesses holds great promise to eradicate genetic illnesses, ethics obviously had not proven strong enough in the minds of these Chinese scientists.
Explaining that they used 'abnormal' embryos in no way mitigates their lack of respect for ethics in the quest of seeking to put their names on publications by way of such provocative research. The fact that they actually received funding for their work, and support from their employer the Sun Yat Sen University in China - I'm flabergasted.
As I read the article, my mind fell back to 'A Sound of Thunder' - a story I read when I was much younger and filed away in my mind as a fantasy too great to believe. Now, it seems that in the quest for scientific breakthrough, we may now unwittingly step on a butterfly that we do not was in our path, and how ist death will affect the future.
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