Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

there are many new gene-editing technologies, however the CRISPR-Cas9 system is the most popular. A scientist used this technology to remove a gene from human embryos to prevent them from having a genetic disease later on in their life. I understand this technology is thought to be seen as unethical as you are tampering with the very nature of life. Currently this is thought to help with genetic diseases, but people fear this could lead to designer babies. The creation of a human where you can control their genes, and inherently their characteristics. There is no doubt this technology could be used to alter the physical traits of a human, but what about their behavior and cognition? The reason this bothers is because many people believe that behaviors aren't influenced by genes but rather the environment, so would you even be able to alter behavior with gene-editing if the genetics behind behavior are irrelevant.

Hello,

While your comments and questions are certainly relevant to the area of gene-editing, these forums are for students (and their teachers and parents) in grades K-12 who are doing hands-on science projects. If you are in one of these groups and are proposing to do a hands-on science project, please provide more details about your project, including your hypothesis and the experiments you are planning to conduct in order to test your hypothesis. Otherwise, there are other sites on the internet where your comments and questions would be more appropriate. Thank you.

Madeline
Moderator