It’s useful to identify what causes health problems, but that doesn’t fix them. The Human Genome Project has allowed us to read and better understand the code, but it has been virtually impossible to get inside the cell nucleus to make changes—until now.
The discovery of an easy way to “edit” genes may someday make it possible to manufacture “designer babies.” As science fiction becomes fact, humankind needs a biblical perspective now more than ever.
The new Pandora’s boxes of genetics, nanotechnology, and robotics are almost open, yet we seem hardly to have noticed. Ideas can’t be put back in a box. . . . Once they are out, they are out. . . . We are being propelled into this new century with no plan, no control, no brakes. Have we already gone too far down the path to alter course? I don’t believe so, but we aren’t trying yet, and the last chance to assert control—the fail-safe point—is rapidly approaching.
The semi-autobiographical piece was long and rambling, but it scared the pants off everyone who read it, including me. Given the propensity of science to do whatever it wants without any ethical safeguards, it seemed only a matter of time before society would self-destruct.
Fast forward 15 years. I think the dangers of nanotech and robotics were probably overstated, but recent advances in genetics are truly frightening. The dangers are so extreme that the National Academies of Science hosted a major international summit on gene editing in December 2015 in Washington, DC. As Wired put it, “Science would like some rules.”
In laying out his doomsday scenario in 2000, Bill Joy nonetheless thought that mankind could solve its problems: “In the end, it is because of our great capacity for caring that I remain optimistic we will confront the dangerous issues now before us.”
As a Christian and director of the Center for Bioethics at Cedarville University, I’m not reassured. Despite all the glib talk, the dangers are real. Only God’s Word provides the infallible perspective that mankind needs to avert disaster.
The Promise of Gene Splicing
The Human Genome Project, completed in April of 2003, was filled with promise. With the complete sequence of the human genetic code in hand, researchers could now begin to unravel the mysteries of the blueprint of life. This would allow a better understanding of how the body works and what causes genetic diseases. These new insights into DNA, which geneticist Francis Collins calls “the language of God,” have led to a genetics revolution.
It’s useful to identify what causes health problems, but that doesn’t fix them. The Human Genome Project has allowed us to read and better understand the code, but it has been virtually impossible to get inside the cell nucleus to make changes—until now.
The new genetic technique is called CRISPR, short for “Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats” (see below). For the first time, this “gene splicing” procedure will allow the direct editing of specific genes.
Currently limited to the laboratory, CRISPR holds the promise of one day providing new cures for genetic diseases, including cancer and Alzheimer’s. Such dreams lie far in the future, as research on CRISPR will likely take years, probably even decades, before any human clinical treatments might emerge.
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