Question: Soon we will be able to use methods such as CRISPR to edit our genes and stop disease, but how far should we be allowed to go? Should we stop at removing disease or not stop editing until everyone is a perfect human with no sadness present in the world.

Srinath Kasturirangan answered on 13 Mar 2019:

This is a great question. I use CRISPR technology in my every day research – to create genetic variants of bacteria that can produce a protein of interest (for example a drug for cancer) that the bacteria would not normally produce. I can tell you this technology is not foolproof. If you edit the genes in a million bacteria, it is only a handful that will accept the change that you want to introduce. The rest will either reject the change or just die since this is not their normal DNA make up. So to go and do this in a fetus to engineer super babies is FAR from reality. Imagine having to edit the genes of 100s of embryos to get that 1 perfect baby. It can result in completely new diseases or problems that we have never come across before. So while it sounds like a utopian future to engineer perfect humans with no sadness or illnesses, it is really not within the realms of possibility – yet.