Editing Genes In Human Embryos Doesn't Mean Designer Babies

Posted by yaelk on Tuesday February 16, 2016 @07:46AM from the no-designer-babies-yet dept.

TheAlexKnapp writes: Dr. Kathy Niakan, who is leading the scientific team that just got the go-ahead to edit genes in human embryos, explains why their work won't lead to designer babies. The genes that they're looking at, she says, are unique to the human embryo, and the work's sole purpose is to understand early development. "We can use this new method that's extremely precise and efficient to ask questions about early development that has profound importance for stem cell biology, and for our understanding of why some embryos fail to thrive." But really ... how long until it turns into designer babies?

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Re:This is were we should be going by 110010001000 · 2016-02-16 08:08 · Score: 4, Informative

We cannot populate the galaxy...because distance. The nearest star outside of our system is way too far away. We could never reach there. And no, we cannot build a spaceship that can go any appreciable fraction of the speed of light and there is no such thing as wormholes we can travel through.