The experiment, if true, is disturbing for a number of reasons: first, that it violated what seemed to be an unofficial, unspoken but well understood agreement among the international community that the modification of human genomes, while conceivable, has a tremendous number of ethical red lines to be crossed. If attempted, it should not only be justifiable, but done within a rigorous framework, under strict and well-documented supervision. Previous to this revelation, the biggest leap forward had been the modification of human embryos to delete life-threatening genetic mutations; the embryos had then been discarded. Certainly nothing on the scale of what He claimed has ever been documented.
The idea that a scientist independently tinkering in a lab, experimenting on humans, has the necessary tools at disposal but may not be well-armed with ethical rigor, is terrifying, and straight out of H. G. Wells’ “The Island of Dr. Moreau.” The idea that so-called “monsters” can be the result of such experimentation is not unfounded: human genome editing technology which allows the removal, alteration or addition of genetic material is said to be precise but the effects can be unpredictable. One consequence has been mosaicism (the alteration of DNA in some cells in the germline but not others), and some researchers have posited that gene alterations can cause deletions, alterations and interactions of genetic material beyond the target site—an adverse effect not fully explored but which should be serious enough to give any scientist pause.
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