Continuous as the stars that shine And twinkle on the milky way, They stretched in never-ending line Along the margin of a bay: Ten thousand saw I at a glance, Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
The waves beside them danced; but they Out-did the sparkling waves in glee: A poet could not but be gay, In such a jocund company: I gazed—and gazed—but little thought What wealth the show to me had brought:
For oft, when on my couch I lie In vacant or in pensive mood, They flash upon that inward eye Which is the bliss of solitude; And then my heart with pleasure fills, And dances with the daffodils.
- William Wordsworth
A new gene editing method may very well be able to create an all-new super baby. Chinese researchers have recently discovered a way to triple the level of efficiency of a gene-editing tool for human embryos.
It is planned to be ready sooner than later for clinical use, meaning that within the next two years we may very well have gene edited babies, or at least, that’s the case according to the researchers working on the project.
Even the researchers, however, have concerns about the consequences that may come with their new findings, comparing the new technology to drugs and weapons in terms of how it is immoral.
The type of research that it’s conducted during this project is known as base editing and involves changing DNA, however, it doesn’t involve cutting any strands of DNA, and is believed to be safer than other technologies.
The team of researchers released their findings, sharing that that injected a base editor in order to fix a human embryo mutation at the two-cell stage of development, and managed to prove that eighty percent of the mutations were corrected.
At the single stage, only thirty percent of the mutations were corrected. The team, however, has the goal of achieving one hundred percent, complete efficiency.
Based on their set timeline, China needs to take action as fast as possible when it comes to regulating this new technology if they want to avoid having superhumans.