Analysis on the Development and Application of Human Gene Editing: Take Genetically Modified Babies as Example

Abstract

Genetically editing on human embryos have not yet been common used clinically and its feasibility is still in doubt. However, gene editing is always a popular topic in societies. There are already three methods on gene editing, including the zinc finger nucleases (ZNFs) technology, transcription activator like effector nucleases (TALENs) technology and the most recently found CRISPER/Cas9 technology. At the end of 2018, a Chinese professor called He Jiankui announced that two genetically modified babies were born, which caused great attention among public. This article introduces the three gene editing technologies and the whole process of the genetically modified babies’ event to give the readers some background knowledge of the issue. Subsequently, the study worked out some considerations of this event from different aspects aiming to have a deep analyze. It is hoped that scientists can raise their awareness on what to do and authorities should at the same time properly interfere and report in the process to supervise. Some ethical problems on applying these technologies to human embryos should also be considered and better to be solved.