Several days ago, a Chinese court sentenced the scientist behind the world’s first gene-edited babies. He Jiankui helped engineer babies a year ago. The court said his research and team crossed the bottom line of ethnics.
But the world got its first genetically engineered children with the powerful DNA-editing tool called CRISPR-Cas9. The altered genes to the babies will be passed to their children, grandchildren, and so on. You get the point.
But what is the CRISPR technology? Let’s try put it into context. Yes, it can be used to cross lines of ethnics. As we saw with He Jiankui.
His goal was to create a genetically modified baby that will not be affected by the HIV virus. Her father was infected by HIV, so he wanted to create a healthy baby. Can we use the CRISPR technology for good? And do so without crossing moral and ethnics lines? This documentary helps us put that into context.
