Essay Sample on CRISPR Technology in Gene Editing

What is CRISPR? What are the restrictions and where do we conclude what is unethical and what is ethical in this new, world-changing technology?

I choose this topic because I feel like this technology is the future and everyone should know what it does and what limits we should have.

To properly understand CRISPR and genetics. CRISPR stands for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats, this is used for the CRISPR-Cas9 genetic engineering. Cas is the protein that goes to the DNA sequence and cuts the faulty allele and replaces it with the correct allele. DNA is a genetic chain of letters. Imagine a chain and think of this question can I remove one part of the chain without damaging the whole thing. Cas9 is the solution.  We already use genetic engineering on crops but what about humans? Scientists can think oh how can I make this crop its best self. It works the same on us.

In China, there was a report of CRISPR being used on twins. CRISPR was used to edit the gene that causes HIV which is the virus for AIDS. American biochemists Stanley N. Cohen and Herbert W. Boyer are the people famous for being one of the first to cut DNA into fragments, combine different fragments, and insert the new genes into E. coli bacteria, which then reproduced with others.

What are our future limitations on how we use CRISPR? We have seen movies with genetically modified humans, those movies don't end up with a happy ever after. But we don't want to use CRISPR to the point where we know we have the tech to cure so many people. We don't just have to let them die right in our eyes. The main thing I feel that we have to be cautious about is us, humans, using it to create a perfect soldier for war. We don't want a zombie apocalypse on our hands, do we?

We don't want to regret not using CRISPR to cure people but regretting using it to create a super-soldier. It will be a fine line between morally correct and immorally correct in this situation. I want to be optimistic about an Earth where there are no diseases and even no hunger. Sadly, the human greed I believe will make the future just a dream.