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Healthy Human Embryos can be edited.
Swedish Scientists could be able to change the world as we know it. They have become one of the first people to edit healthy human embryos. Researchers from the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, injected human embryos with a gene that is able to edit. Their purpose is to make changes of DNA.
What is really interesting is that they managed to this thing in a few days after the fertilization. Scientists are hoping that they will find new methods for treating infertility or decrease the risk of losing the baby. There were other similar studied in the past. Chinese researchers tried to change the healthy human embryos and find treatments for diseases such as HIV. Unfortunately, the embryos were not able to develop into babies.
Another interesting fact is that the babies will not be used for pregnancy. The author of the study said that they are not going to allow the embryos to develop more than two weeks. They are doing this because they do not want to be seen as baby-designers. Their purpose is different. Even though the embryos were donated by couples, they are not going to develop into children.
There are a lot of people who do not agree with editing healthy human embryos. They are concerned because a new disease could be developed by mistake. Everything is new and people still have to learn more things about this before being sure that is is not a danger. Moreover, if scientists will be able to achieve their goal, we could see in the future other researchers who will design babies. They must pay attention to those who want to use gene editing for modified babies.
However, we should expect more research regarding healthy human embryos. It seems that we could really have some benefits and the babies health could be improved. Even though there should be some limits, the human embryo editing can help researchers.
The most important thing is not to use this discovery for pregnancy. If the human genes would be changed, there will be a lot of dangers involved, such as new diseases that could affect the future babies. Researchers should focus only on finding out more things about the human embryo if they do not want future generations to have health problems. There will be more safety issues to be discussed regarding this issue.
Image source: Pixabay
