Imagine someone and their partner wanted to have a child, but they both possessed the cystic fibrosis gene, therefore leaving their future child with a hypothetical 50 percent chance of inheritance. How much would they be willing to pay to ensure that their child could avoid this gene?
Now imagine if they could purchase a gene that allowed their child to have increased intelligence. Would they be willing to pay for it? Would this be fair to those who couldn’t afford the same gene?
Disease Prevention and Genome Editing
In 2016, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention named heart disease as the worldwide leading cause of death over the last 15 years. Claiming more than 630,000 in the United States alone, the disease accounted for more than 1 in every 4 deaths, costing Americans approximately $200 billion a year. Fortunately, an emerging technology has promised to significantly reduce this threat: genome editing.
Disease prevention has been around for decades: in 1988, Elena Kontogianni and a team of scientists carried out the first clinical cases using a pre-implantation genetic diagnosis. The process involves testing embryos conceived through in vitro fertilization (IVF) for genetically inherited diseases present in a given patient’s genetic history. With the discovery of new technologies such as CRISPR, which allows for the precise selection and elimination of specific genes in an embryo, the possibilities of genome editing and disease prevention have greatly expanded. This has lead scientists to predict even more incredible benefits in the near future.
Once deemed impossible, scientists have developed a way to partially eliminate harmful genes from an embryo, such as those linked to diseases like cancer, Alzheimer’s, and even obesity. The product of decades of research and development, this new technology has excited many who have sought a way to erase the presence of diseases in newborns and even the global population altogether. However, it has also brought about questions regarding the social implications of editing genes.
The Cost to the Individual and Society
As with all new technologies, the cost of a gene editing would be substantial. Currently, the cost on average for standard in vitro fertilization procedures is over $20,000. This doesn’t even include the cost of pre-implantation genetic diagnosis which in many cases can cost $10,000 or more. While this might not be of issue to wealthy couples looking to have children, it is a significant cost to those with less financial means. Until the technology can be more efficiently carried out at a lower cost, this service will likely continue to be too expensive for average consumers.
Scientists theorize that aside from disease prevention, genome editing will also be able to dictate other features of an individual —height, strength, endurance, and other physical components. Furthermore, some researchers have gone as far as predicting that the technology will also allow for the creation of babies with increased intelligence, social skills, and other highly coveted traits. This presents a major dilemma in that wealthier consumers will be able to design babies with more favorable qualities, an artificial form of natural selection. Better designed children will achieve more in academics, athletics, and in short, will have a greater capability for success in life. If the wealthy are able to program every desirable trait into their offspring, how will everyone else compete?
Proposals for Government Response
Although this technology has yet to be developed and will likely take decades before implementation, the government can take a number of measures to avoid these future dilemmas. In the case of CRISPR, federal regulators could place a ban on genetic modification except when it is used to avoid the inheritance of life-altering disorders, diseases, and disabilities such as depression, cancer, and blindness. Although this proposal does not address the issue of the disproportionate access to gene editing amongst the different social classes, it is fair to say that some people having this technology is better than none at all.
Nonetheless, the government can still do more to make this technology more accessible. One way of doing this would be to significantly increase federal funding of gene editing research. Doing so would speed up the process of finding cheap and efficient production methods for this technology. In January 2018, the U.S. National Institute of Health announced a $190 million plan to fund genome editing research over the next six years. But with countries like China far ahead, it is evident that more financial support is necessary to put the United States at the forefront of this science.
Given that it is not the job of the private sector to tend to ethical and moral concerns, but rather to maximize profits, the responsibility of regulating access to genome editing falls to the government. Failure to do so would almost definitely result in disproportionately advantageous competition that allows for the wealthy to remain atop the social ladder at the expense of the poor. Genome editing has the potential to better the world by eradicating diseases and introducing more favorable traits, however, those benefits should be for all, not just those at the top.
Image Credit: CDC / R. Regnery; E. L. Palmer