Bioethics: While allowing people to live without diseases such as muscular dystrophy would improve their lives, what would happen if the gene alteration cause another problem elsewhere? If by somehow altering the muscles genes, the blood genes gave the baby a type of blood disease, how can that be justified? If there is room for error, then why take the risk?
GGM: Of course there are risks with my process. There are with any. If the door to technology that could possibly cure every genetic disease or birth defect is opened, why not work to get in? Now there may be negative side affects, but in the future there could be perfect genetic modification developed. By not taking the risk now, any chance for that discovery is denied. That doesn't seem fair. There are people who would risk their child having other possible complications if it meant their child's increased probability for survival.
B: The people who would take the risks with using genetic modification would be at an advantage to other parents who were not willing to take the risk. In the future, there could be very risky genetic modification that could fix Child A's muscle problems. Child B's parents don't want to take the risk because they believe their child will be able to have a happy life with their support. Child A does not get any negative outcomes from the surgery and becomes a professional sports player. Child B lives with their muscle problems and stays with their family their whole life. How is that fair?
GGM: Well, it would be Child B's parents' faults for not taking the risk. Maybe that would be unfair though, because Child B could have ended up with further complications from the modification than Child A. This method, when perfected, would yield better and fairer results than with the risks now. As long as it can keep being tested, I don't see any potential problems from it in the future.
B: Less risks would make it slightly fairer, but how far is this process going to modify people? Treating diseases is one thing, but anything else is unnecessary.
GGM: In the future, it would be possible to modify gender, eye color, height, memory, athletic inclination, those sorts of things. Humans could finally live up to their full potentials! There could be flawless rulers of countries and highly skilled builders. The perfect society seems in reach...
B: Yeah that's definitely not any more fair than before. For the people who can afford to genetically modify their baby, great! They can have little perfect geniouses climbing to the top of their preschool classes, getting into higher education programs, better schools, better jobs, etc.. For the rest of the world population, where many of them live below or around the poverty line, they just have to deal with whatever nature gives them in their children. The gap between rich and poor will become so incredibly large that the people who aren't genetically modified may be so low in superpower-genious-perfect-ness that they will become merely extras in society.
GGM: Well, I guess that will have to be taken into consideration for the future. It's amazing how altering a few genes now could lead to controlling the outcome of the world from the source (how people are developed in the womb). For now though, curing diseases will have a positive outcome to babies who would otherwise have the diseases. As soon as the risk for other negative side effects decreases, this should be used.
