By Gianna Campos
CRISPR/Cas9: Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic/Cas9 is an RNA-guided DNA endonuclease enzyme associated with CRISPR adaptive immunity system in Streptococcus pyogenes, among other bacteria. That doesn’t make much sense, does it? Those are the definitions for CRISPR and Cas9.
According to https://www.livescience.com, CRISPR is the “simple yet powerful tool for editing genomes.” It allows researchers to easily modify and alter gene sequences; and the protein Cas9 acts like molecular scissors, capable of cutting strands of DNA. In simpler terms, researches can cut out certain parts of DNA strands and then replace it with another fitted strand.
When you first hear that, it sounds pretty cool. This technology allows us to take out cancer and HIV/AIDS from our DNA, and that’s a great thing. This technology also allows designer babies. What is a designer baby? Well, it is the act of editing the genes/traits of your child while they are still an embryo. This means you can edit your baby to be smart, have no disabilities, have any eye color you choose, etc. All these things sound amazing! Do they not?
To some, this technology is amazing. To others, it is not. I am one of those others.
Don’t get me wrong, I think this technology could be wonderful and do great things for the world and humans as a race, but I think that in this world there are too many selfish, evil people that would use this technology in ways it shouldn’t be. I don’t have enough trust in humanity to use this technology for something that’s beneficial for all people.
In an interview with my English teacher, Michael Low, Michael Low, who is the one that informed me about CRISPR, I asked how he felt about CRISPR and designer babies when first learning about them and his response was, “I’m less worried about designer babies partly because we already do that to a certain extent.. like people already get genetic testing and end pregnancies that they don’t want with kids who are in some going to be ‘difficult’ to raise for the parents.”
He expressed how he’s much more worried about the implications globally and how CRISPR is “both cheap and easy. That’s the part that’s really scary that it’s both cheap and easy.” He feels that the most “freaky thing” is the unintended consequences of CRISPR.
“It would suck if [people using CRISPR] were like ‘Oh! We’re going to edit this gene!’ and then they’re like, ‘Oh man, we didn’t realize but this gene actually affects the expression of these other genes and now we’ve got a huge problem and everybody’s got this built in genetic issue and we’re all vulnerable to x, y, z and people are acting crazy.’ Those kind of unintended consequences, that stuff scares me.”
My thoughts on CRISPR? I believe that with all the people in this world, there is more evil rather than good. I think everything that is done with CRISPR will come with a price. Maybe this has a lot to do with my beliefs, but I do not think CRISPR will do much good. People that use CRISPR will probably make some time of new being before using it to cure all diseases.
Do-it-yourself CRISPR/Cas reagents are already available at Addgene; Individual plasmids only cost $500 per target. It is only $500 to edit genes. You could go on Amazon and buy a CRISPR kit for even cheaper. Anyone could buy this and do whatever it is they wanted with this technology.
I know most people hear about this technology and don’t think much of it, but that is why I wrote this story. I want to stress why this could be a potentially very bad thing. I know that this could cure every illness known to mankind. I understand that and that is pure good. But what lets people know that behind the scenes something terrible is going on? Why risk something so terrible? The things that CRISPR can be used for are good, it’s the people that can use is what can put us all at risk.
According to https://www.livescience.com, CRISPR is the “simple yet powerful tool for editing genomes.” It allows researchers to easily modify and alter gene sequences; and the protein Cas9 acts like molecular scissors, capable of cutting strands of DNA. In simpler terms, researches can cut out certain parts of DNA strands and then replace it with another fitted strand.
When you first hear that, it sounds pretty cool. This technology allows us to take out cancer and HIV/AIDS from our DNA, and that’s a great thing. This technology also allows designer babies. What is a designer baby? Well, it is the act of editing the genes/traits of your child while they are still an embryo. This means you can edit your baby to be smart, have no disabilities, have any eye color you choose, etc. All these things sound amazing! Do they not?
To some, this technology is amazing. To others, it is not. I am one of those others.
Don’t get me wrong, I think this technology could be wonderful and do great things for the world and humans as a race, but I think that in this world there are too many selfish, evil people that would use this technology in ways it shouldn’t be. I don’t have enough trust in humanity to use this technology for something that’s beneficial for all people.
In an interview with my English teacher, Michael Low, Michael Low, who is the one that informed me about CRISPR, I asked how he felt about CRISPR and designer babies when first learning about them and his response was, “I’m less worried about designer babies partly because we already do that to a certain extent.. like people already get genetic testing and end pregnancies that they don’t want with kids who are in some going to be ‘difficult’ to raise for the parents.”
He expressed how he’s much more worried about the implications globally and how CRISPR is “both cheap and easy. That’s the part that’s really scary that it’s both cheap and easy.” He feels that the most “freaky thing” is the unintended consequences of CRISPR.
“It would suck if [people using CRISPR] were like ‘Oh! We’re going to edit this gene!’ and then they’re like, ‘Oh man, we didn’t realize but this gene actually affects the expression of these other genes and now we’ve got a huge problem and everybody’s got this built in genetic issue and we’re all vulnerable to x, y, z and people are acting crazy.’ Those kind of unintended consequences, that stuff scares me.”
My thoughts on CRISPR? I believe that with all the people in this world, there is more evil rather than good. I think everything that is done with CRISPR will come with a price. Maybe this has a lot to do with my beliefs, but I do not think CRISPR will do much good. People that use CRISPR will probably make some time of new being before using it to cure all diseases.
Do-it-yourself CRISPR/Cas reagents are already available at Addgene; Individual plasmids only cost $500 per target. It is only $500 to edit genes. You could go on Amazon and buy a CRISPR kit for even cheaper. Anyone could buy this and do whatever it is they wanted with this technology.
I know most people hear about this technology and don’t think much of it, but that is why I wrote this story. I want to stress why this could be a potentially very bad thing. I know that this could cure every illness known to mankind. I understand that and that is pure good. But what lets people know that behind the scenes something terrible is going on? Why risk something so terrible? The things that CRISPR can be used for are good, it’s the people that can use is what can put us all at risk.