Eugenics is the field which aims to "improve" the human genome pool, which can be a double edged sword, contributing both good and bad to the world and society at large.

Changing your genes doesn't just mean changing what you don't like, it also means changing what's killing you. The latter is what's needed, however the option for the former is what majorly contributes to the idea of “eugenics” in gene editing– the concept of creating a “perfect” society.

Genetic illnesses occur from a mutation. A mutation is formed when the normal arrangement of DNA nucleotides is disturbed and changed. While most of these mutations are completely harmless, as the genetic sequence is degenerative, meaning that multiple nucleotide triplets code for the same amino acid, some mutations cause disease, most notoriously cancer. While cancer is not a genetic disease, it has a genetic basis, and predisposition is indeed inherited. Most types of cancer start when a mutation affects the functioning of protein53 (p53), a protein involved in checking the genetic material cells have during interphase. When p53 is altered significantly, inhibited or missing, it is possible the cell will go into chaotic cell division, in turn forming tumors. There are many approved treatments for cancer, such as radio and chemotherapy, however, genetic engineering to “heal” a mutation is a possibility which has been put on the table recently.

We can synthesize artificial DNA by the usage of a new and emerging technology that focuses on creating strands of nucleotides, named “oligonucleotides”, using microchips. The microchips act as reaction chambers, where light is shone on the chamber where the computer wants a certain nucleotide, such as adenine, to bind to. The computer pumps a adenine solution, and the reaction happens. These chambers will eventually form an oligonucleotide once all nucleotides have been used. This new technology is very exciting, as creating oligonucleotides can be an expensive feat. These oligonucleotides can then be used in various techniques, such as some forms of CRISPR technology, creating viruses artificially, and more.

CRISPR technology uses an enzyme called Cas9, found in the immune system of archaea and bacteria. It has been created by these organisms to delete genes and insert others that would seemingly help their survival, such as modifying genes to better fight antibiotic treatments. In order to start the CRISPR technology, a guide RNA has to be synthesized, complementary to the DNA sequence that has to be modified. With the Human Genome Project being completed, we now know the overall map of the human genome and we can apply this to overseeing mutations which cause certain genetic diseases, making this step relatively easy. The guide RNA is inserted into cells with the Cas9 enzyme, which will bind to the targeted section of DNA, leading to the Cas9 enzyme cutting where the guide RNA binds, after which another piece of DNA can be bound naturally. However, like many medical procedures, CRISPR technology brings about dangers, mostly the danger the CAS9 enzyme would cut elsewhere. While unlikely, it is important every patient is thoroughly informed about what each treatment consists of.

Earlier on we have briefly touched upon cancer and its genetic basis, but what about illnesses which are almost solely inheritable? Genetic illnesses include Huntington’s, Down syndrome, and even illnesses such as autism, which is one of the most heritable neuro-psychological illnesses that we are aware of. These illnesses have one or more mutated genes, which are passed on towards offspring. Healing these illnesses using CRISPR technology is indeed possible, however it is yet to be approved. Moreover, it is possible that in the future we will see children’s genomes altered to create a child without certain illnesses. The ethicality of such a feat is currently under hot debate. Critics of genetic therapies have pointed out the availability of other treatments. While motor-psychological treatments do exist, very few have statistically significant improvement rates, entire industries have been built on the claims that these treatments work. For example, almost 80% of children in an American study showed no improvement after one year of ABA and 9% of children’s behaviours worsened. These findings highlight how oftentimes, the therapies offered for genetic conditions, especially therapies for children, are more of a placebo that makes their family believe the situation is under control, when it isn't really; so, should parents be able to control the illnesses that their children would have? Should parents be able to engineer their children, so their offspring are free from genetic disabilities? While this question certainly won’t be one we have to worry about in the upcoming decades with polygenetic illnesses such as autism, the debate is underway for illnesses such as Huntington’s disease, a neurodegenerative illness whose overexpression of the HTT gene on chromosome 4 produces excess Huntingtin protein, which in turn degenerates neuromuscular functioning. While critics argue that the exclusion of certain individuals we deem as ill will inadvertently create sociological hostility for individuals who currently suffer from these genetic diseases, or in the future, for individuals whose families wanted to have them as they were created, disease and all, supporters of this embryo therapy claim that most illnesses demonstrate a heavy toll not only on the individual, but on the people around them also, a toll most likely misunderstood unless taken. The debate is large, and has many aspects impossible to dissect in a reductionist manner. The transhumanistic debate is certainly one where one needs to form their own opinions and assess the ethicality of each and every case with its unique conditions.

For the present, “designer” babies as they are known in popular culture are heavily restricted. One of the possible reasons for this is because the technology can easily be used for inhumane or simply vain purposes. In the era of social media, it is easy to believe that this technology could be used by the rich to create more physically attractive children, with rarer phenotypes, for reasons of status. In Nazi Germany, eugenics were heavily used; while the Nazi regime not only claimed the lives of certain religious or ethnic groups, over 250,000 disabled people were murdered and more were forcibly sterilized. The regime even created a map targeting certain genetic conditions, such as Huntingtons. As such diseases may manifest later in life, the regime forcibly sterilized many directly related to people who displayed the characteristics of illnesses. This attempt at a genetic bottleneck showed a lack of humanity and of compassion, and is one that may happen again if modern technology is used for similar purposes.

The future seems to have arrived now. Writers, most prominently British writer Aldous Huxley’s transhumanistic dystopia, is becoming perhaps more real than ever. As humans, we tend to separate fictional works from real life and disregard them as entertainment, perhaps taking a moral out of a character’s dilemma, but the time is now to take into account the setting created for these fictional worlds as something we may wake up to tomorrow- it may be a Brave New World.

Sources https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/is-aba-therapy-harmful? https://therapistndc.org/aba-is-not-effective-so-says-the-latest-report-from-the-department-of-defense https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-murder-of-people-with-disabilities https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11237011/ https://www.technologyreview.com/2018/11/25/138962/exclusive-chinese-scientists-are-creating-crispr-babies/ https://crisprtx.com