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In my opinion I think that genetic modification of an embryo is a good idea because it prevents babies from getting a disease even if it's a family one. Even though that's good the modification shouldn't be used to make and design your own baby?? Because it can be dangerous for the embryo and family. Also  I think it's kinda weird and someone should just use it to prevent the embryo from getting a disease and not on designing it.

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in my opinion, the human modification should be allowed. yes, there could be many risks to testing it out, but it worth it so that they can figure out how to make an embryo. the benifits are greater then the disadvantage. well actually there are many risks but i still say it should be tested. if it works out then there would be a lot of advantages.

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In my opinion i think that it is right ,because it can take away deadly diseases and help for later on embryo.

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In my opinion, genetic modification should not be tested because it can lead to fatal errors in the modification.

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in my opinion genetic modification is not a good idea. A lot of things can go wrong with it, the consequences cloud be life threatning.

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It wouldn't be helpful because there is a chance that humans will create better technology advancements to the point where cyborgs could exit.

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In my opinion, genetic modification should not be tested because there are many unsafe factors to the test.

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Yes, this is right, because this could be the leading cause of future science. Plus, it can have the potential, if done right, cure many diseases that aren't cure-able right now. I am aware that there are risks for this process, but it will be worth it because it may revolutionize cures

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I believe that genetic modification should not be tested. There is too many risks and since its a new idea there is a possibility that they could do something wrong and it could be fatal

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yes i think genetic modification should be tested because even though its not natural,it could save a lot of lives and prevent the suffering of many people. If we find a way to do this safely after testing, humanity as we know it would change for the better 

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yes i think genetic modification should be tested because even though its not natural,it could save a lot of lives and prevent the suffering of many people. If we find a way to do this safely after testing, humanity as we know it would change for the better 

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In my opinion, I don't think genetic modification is such a great idea. People can't guarantee that it would  work every time they would try. Something might not go as planned. The article stated there was many mistakes that they had not predicted and it could risk lives. The editing process on many  embryos went wrong. Even if it's able to remove diseases, there's still a high chance that it won't go as planned. The scientists had just made the first genetically modified human embryo and it's a new idea. If it's to be tested, something could go wrong. The scientist do not have total control over the DNA editing process, so it doesn't sound like a good idea.

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In my own opinion, I believe that genetic modification is unethical and should not be experimented with because of the high amount of risks involved in the process. Even with the chance to cure many diseases, the babies that are made would most likely die because the modification is not guaranteed to be successful. Because of this risk I believe that this engineering should not be done on humans with a chance of life.

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In my opinion, genetic modification should not be used , because it is not correct or ethical to experiment on a human being. If we let scientist modify our DNA then the line would be crossed and who knows what the scientist will modify next.  On the other hand, modifying a persons DNA would come in handy. In a way deleting harmful codes from our DNA would save many innocent lives. It would also cure many deadly dieseases.

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i believe that genetically modified people are a good thing because it can save lives from diseases, genetic problems, and the other genetic material that makes up problems.

if a disease were to go viral because of genetics, the people could change the DNA in the cells to stop the virus.

This could change the world and its perspective on life.

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In my opinion, genetic modification is not the right idea, because carrying out this process will bring a high possibility of more danger towards humanity. In the article it says that there were many mistakes that they couldn't even predict. There is no guarantee that life will not be endangered from life from technology, especially for the cell/embryo being tested on. Having designer babies and babies made from technology will make the world into an even worse place, in my opinion. Although genetic modification can cure diseases, there is no certainty for the sustainability of life, when it comes to this. If the process can be more for sure, and not so much like a plastic surgery (designer babies), it may be possible that it is used for the sake of lives and humanity.

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Why Genetic Modification is a Force for Good-

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Why Genetic Modification is a Force for Good-

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In my opinion, genetic modification of human embryos is an excellent idea since it has the ability to remove deadly genetic diseases from a family tree such as hemophilia, retinitis pigmentosa, and reduce the risk of females to contract breast cancer by modifying the BRCA 1 gene. However, genetic modification should not be used to create "designer babies" as the unpredictability of genetic modification could endanger an embryo from a family that could be unlikely to have genetic diseases just for aesthetic purposes.

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Comment on the article attached with full justification explaining your stance on this current topic, before responding to other posts.

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The genetic modification of humans make many people feel very uncomfortable. Tatiana Vdb/Manuel/Flickr, CC BY

It all started with a rumour. Then just six weeks ago, a warning rang out in the scientific journal Nature, expressing "grave concerns regarding the ethical and safety implications" of creating the world's first genetically-modified human embryo.

Then last week, a Chinese group from Sun Yat-sen University, reported that they had, in fact, done it: they had created the first genetically-modified human embryo.

They reported that, in a world first, they had taken "human tripronuclear embryos", and altered mutant DNA that causes the human disease β-thalassemia, which is life-threatening and affects 100,000 people worldwide.

But one person's stern warning is another's delight. The promise of technologies like this - to cure diseases like cystic fibrosis or Huntington's, or even to remove the BRCA mutation, which dramatically increases a woman's risk of dying from breast or ovarian cancer - have been exciting biologists for years.

Cut and paste

So what exactly did the Chinese researchers do? And why has it caused such an uproar?

First, the experiments were performed on human embryos. The researchers collected non-viable embryos from IVF clinics. Then they used this non-viability argument as the ethical justification for performing the work. Scientists know that the embryos were not capable of resulting in a human life, because they were tripronuclear. That means one egg had been fertilised by two sperm, a biological situation we know cannot result a live baby.

Into these embryos, the scientists injected "molecular scissors", known as the CRISPR/Cas9 system, which can target a specific segment of DNA.

In this case, they targeted the HBB gene, which causes β-thalassemia. They then cut out the disease-causing region and replaced it, almost as simply as you may cut and paste in a word-processing document.

But it wasn't quite that clean and simple. The researchers reported "off target effects" and "mosaicism". This means the editing sometimes occurred at the wrong place in the DNA and that it wasn't occurring in all embryos equally. There were many mistakes, which they could not have predicted.

Made to order?

This raises at least two issues. The first is the ethical issue surrounding the use of human embryos for scientific research, and associated concerns around creating designer babies. The second is the fact that this editing went so wrong in so many embryos.

Without total control of the DNA editing process, the outcome for a baby born from a technology like this one is completely unknown.

This unpredictability and uncertainty means the promise of eliminating certain diseases by editing the DNA of embryos is likely to be a very long way off. There is also the issue of testing whether the technology is safe.

The notion of testing the technology on a live human baby is problematic indeed. Should a scientific research ethics committee ever agree to let this research be performed?

Fortunately, in Australia, all research performed on human embryos is tightly regulated by the NHMRC, which prohibits human cloning as well as many other technologies, and enforces strong penalties for non-compliance. This means that, for the foreseeable future, this type of research is very unlikely in Australia.

While the scientific world is divided as to the possibilities for this technology in embryos, including the reality of preventing or curing disease, there is consensus that this research must proceed with extreme caution.

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World's first genetically modified human embryo raises ethical concerns

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It all started with a rumour. Then just six weeks ago, a warning rang out in the scientific journal Nature, expressing "grave concerns regarding the ethical and safety implications" of creating the world's first genetically-modified human embryo. Then last week, a Chinese group from Sun Yat-sen University, reported that they had, in fact, done it: they had created the first genetically-modified human embryo.