And so begins the age of man playing God

The First Genetically Modified Human Embryo: Advance or Abomination?
By Brandon Keim     May 12, 2008 | 10:58:22 AM   Categories: Bioethics, Biotechnology, Reproduction  


Scientists have created the first genetically modified human embryo.

What does this mean to you?

Led by Nikica Zaninovic, researchers at Cornell University added a green fluorescent protein to an embryo left over from assisted reproduction. They destroyed the embryo five days later. It is believed to be the first documented genetic modification of a human embryo.

British newspaper The Times reports that Zaninovic's feat was announced at the American Society for Reproductive Medicine annual meeting in 2007, but was only publicized recently when the United Kingdom's reproductive technology regulators reviewed the research. The House of Commons is about to consider legislation permitting this and other controversial reproductive technologies, such as the creation of chimeras -- human-animal hybrid embryos.

The research raises a number of thorny ethical questions. Though adding a fluorescent protein was not aimed at enhancement, but rather to illuminate developing embryos, scientists say that modified embryos could be used to research human diseases. They say embryos wouldn't be allowed to develop for more than a few weeks, much less implanted in a woman and brought to term.

If the embryos were allowed to develop, genetic modifications -- which would be permanent and passed to future generations -- might prevent disease. Modifications might also be used for other reasons -- physical appearance, intellectual prowess, personality -- though the necessary science remains hypothetical at this point. Developing such techniques would necessarily entail trial-and-error and risk-taking with human life.

David King, director of Human Genetics Alert, a bioethics watchdog group, told The Times that

    "This is the first step on the road that will lead to the nightmare of designer babies and a new eugenics. The HFEA is right to say that the creation and legalisation of GM embryos raises ‘large ethical and public interest issues’ but neglects to mention that these have not been debated at all."

So let's have that debate. What do you think, Wired Science readers? Should genetically modified embryos be used in research, but not reproduction? Both? Neither?