Designer Babies – Impact Lab

Big Problems, Biotech, China, DNA, Science & Technology News

Inside the Controversy: Chinese scientists creating CRISPR babies

December 6, 2018

A daring effort is under way to create the first children whose DNA has been tailored using gene editing.

When Chinese researchers first edited the genes of a human embryo in a lab dish in 2015, it sparked global outcry and pleas from scientists not to make a baby using the technology, at least for the present.

It was the invention of a powerful gene-editing tool, CRISPR, which is cheap and easy to deploy, that made the birth of humans genetically modified in an in vitro fertilization (IVF) center a theoretical possibility.

Now, it appears it may already be happening.

Continue reading… “Inside the Controversy: Chinese scientists creating CRISPR babies”

Biotech, DNA, Medical Breakthrough, Science & Technology News

Designer babies on horizon as ethics council gives green light to genetically edited embryos

July 22, 2018

Designer babies are on the horizon after an influential group of scientists concluded that it could be ‘morally permissible’ to genetically engineer human embryos.

In a new report which opens the door to a change in the law, the Nuffield Council on Bioethics, said that DNA editing could become an option for parents wanting to ‘influence the genetic characteristics of their child.’

Although it would be largely used to cure devastating genetic illnesses, or predispositions to cancers and dementia, the experts said they were not ruling out cosmetic uses such as making tweaks to increase height or changing eye or hair colour, if it would make a child more successful.

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Analysis, Breakthrough Thinking, Business, Historical Perspectives, Latest Trend, New Viewpoints, People Making a Difference, Science & Technology News, sports

Technology’s Threat to the Future of Sports – Part 1

December 12, 2013

Futurist Thomas Frey: Recently I returned from a trip to Seoul, Korea where I was asked to speak at the Global Sports Marketing Forum on the “future of sports.” This event was part of a series being planned to draw attention to the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, Korea.

Continue reading… “Technology’s Threat to the Future of Sports – Part 1”