For months, a small company in San Francisco has been pursuing a secretive project: the birth of a genetically engineered baby.
Backed by OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman and his husband, along with Coinbase co-founder and CEO Brian Armstrong, the startup—called Preventive—has been quietly preparing what would amount to a biological first.
They are working toward creating a child born from an embryo edited to prevent a hereditary disease. In recent months, executives at the company privately said a couple with a genetic disease had been identified who was interested in participating, according to people familiar with the conversations.
Gene-editing technologies now in use for treatment after birth allow scientists to cut, edit and insert DNA, but using the process in sperm, eggs or embryos is far more controversial and has prompted calls by scientists for a global moratorium until the ethical and scientific questions get resolved. Editing genes in embryos with the intention of creating babies from them is banned in the U.S. and many countries.
Preventive has been searching for places to experiment where embryo editing is allowed, including the United Arab Emirates, according to correspondence reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
None of us had any agency about being born, that choice was made for us. I’d have felt better about it if that choice wasn’t left to chance.
yuikkiuy on
Good, they should lift the ban, why cant i give my kid 3 lungs, 2 hearts, enhanced musculature, etc…?
Designer babies let’s gooooo
Jaxxlack on
Ridley Scotts future of alien/blade runner is one where corporations ignore morals…
FennelDull6559 on
So it’s a fine that only the super rich can afford?
phishyninja on
Boy it’s almost like they believe they can do whatever they want
neo101b on
We are too far behind, wasn’t Khan supposed to be born in the 90s ?
I’m still waiting for the bell riots, not so much a fan of WW3, though Starfleet sounds like it might be worth it.
saviorself19 on
I don’t understand the controversy with bespoke babies. These are the eggs that eventually lead to the Space Marine omelette.
Waste_Philosophy4250 on
Genetically engineered babies are going to happen one way or another in the near future. Best legislate for it now.
clover_heron on
There’s something psychologically bizarre about a being who has so little faith in the universe around them that they think they’re supposed to intervene and take over everything. It’s nonsensical, of course, but it’s also rude on every level. Why would *anyone* listen to or take orders from a person like that?
rp3rsaud on
Body odor in sweat comes down to a single nucleotide. People with A (adenine) in both copies of the gene have no body odor. This is rare. If you edited out the guanine and replaced them with adenine, the deodorant companies go out of business. More likely they will edit something in that enslaves us to some other product.
zeaor on
The ban on research for genetically modified embryos is so hands-down idiotic. Gene editing research will be done in the future whether it be 5 or 50 years from now, so why not regulate it like we do with literally all other medical treatments? It’s unethical to stop progress so that people with genetic diseases spend their lives suffering.
Fear-mongering movies like Gattaca are more of an indictment of applying free market capitalism to healthcare and poor government oversight than a genuine discussion on gene editing. The opposite situation, what we have now with the Dickey-Wicker amendment and FDA freeze on clinical trial for embryos, is just as dangerous and is literally responsible for thousands of deaths.
2020mademejoinreddit on
It’s like they want the dystopian futures portrayed in the 80’s movies to come true. And notice it’s the usual suspects.
mdandy88 on
there will be a generation of, probably Chinese, children who are so outrageously gifted that the norms will band together to wipe them out, only to discover that they already control our machines
at which point we will end up wearing dog collars and begging for food.
khaerns1 on
not surprised they would target vulnerable couples with genetic deseases to advance their agenda. Small steps toward genetic selection and enslavement starting behind the cover of good intentions.
BornIn1142 on
Frankly, without any hyperbole, it’s only a matter of time until the elites will attempt to make their offspring into a biological upper caste.
Genetic engineering can never be banned globally. Even with international treaties, there *will* be havens in the world that will permit it, and thus become destinations for medical tourism by rich elites. Once designer babies are born, they become a problem with no ethically sound solution. Thus the door will be open for a billionaire couples to breed a generation of children that are literally biologically superior to the children of the rest of the human race.
With that in mind, I’d rather that genetic engineering was unbanned and made as widely accessible as possible, with all the problems that entails.
baamonster on
GMO babies are going to crazy. Imagine the racism that’s going to be around when they show up.
untrustedlife2 on
Well that seems like conspiracy to commit a crime. Why isn’t he in jail yet?
MostAvocado9483 on
The irony is that they might inadvertently speed run another Habsburg jaw by only commingling with other “elites.”
NecroSocial on
The ban on this stuff is based on sort of the moral and ethical concerns involved, saying those need to be solved before proceeding. Thing is there’s been this ban for a while and there’s never been any attempt to actually sort that stuff out. It’s just been a ban, any benefits humanity could possibly reap from controlled development in this area just ignored.
We could possibly be curing genetic illnesses that plague or end the lives of millions of people, we don’t know though because pursuing the needed experiments is forbidden. I know there’s reasons for concern around the eugenics of it all and regarding the possibility of harm for those born from such research. I just think those things, with proper planning and oversight, can be controlled for and the results could change life on Earth for the better. So personally, I’d like to see at least tentative steps taken towards progress in the field.
Another_Slut_Dragon on
Just do this research on a remote island somewhere in the south Pacific and it will be fine.
KenUsimi on
Well, yeah, in case you haven’t noticed the current Regime doesn’t give two farts about precedent, bribes work much better.
Without regulation, and active enforcement, the largest corporations can do literally anything they want.
1052098 on
I wish I were a designer baby. Imagine being a fking Primarch.
wizzard419 on
Gasp, a group of people known for being amoral doing one of the most amoral things ever. These people would have probably been pro chem warfare in the first world war, provided they could make money.
They usually try to frame it as “We are going to eliminate genetic disorders” but it’s rarely for such altruistic purposes.
24 Comments
For months, a small company in San Francisco has been pursuing a secretive project: the birth of a genetically engineered baby.
Backed by OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman and his husband, along with Coinbase co-founder and CEO Brian Armstrong, the startup—called Preventive—has been quietly preparing what would amount to a biological first.
They are working toward creating a child born from an embryo edited to prevent a hereditary disease. In recent months, executives at the company privately said a couple with a genetic disease had been identified who was interested in participating, according to people familiar with the conversations.
Gene-editing technologies now in use for treatment after birth allow scientists to cut, edit and insert DNA, but using the process in sperm, eggs or embryos is far more controversial and has prompted calls by scientists for a global moratorium until the ethical and scientific questions get resolved. Editing genes in embryos with the intention of creating babies from them is banned in the U.S. and many countries.
Preventive has been searching for places to experiment where embryo editing is allowed, including the United Arab Emirates, according to correspondence reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
Read more: [https://www.wsj.com/tech/biotech/genetically-engineered-babies-tech-billionaires-6779efc8?st=6j54AW&mod=wsjreddit](https://www.wsj.com/tech/biotech/genetically-engineered-babies-tech-billionaires-6779efc8?st=6j54AW&mod=wsjreddit)
None of us had any agency about being born, that choice was made for us. I’d have felt better about it if that choice wasn’t left to chance.
Good, they should lift the ban, why cant i give my kid 3 lungs, 2 hearts, enhanced musculature, etc…?
Designer babies let’s gooooo
Ridley Scotts future of alien/blade runner is one where corporations ignore morals…
So it’s a fine that only the super rich can afford?
Boy it’s almost like they believe they can do whatever they want
We are too far behind, wasn’t Khan supposed to be born in the 90s ?
I’m still waiting for the bell riots, not so much a fan of WW3, though Starfleet sounds like it might be worth it.
I don’t understand the controversy with bespoke babies. These are the eggs that eventually lead to the Space Marine omelette.
Genetically engineered babies are going to happen one way or another in the near future. Best legislate for it now.
There’s something psychologically bizarre about a being who has so little faith in the universe around them that they think they’re supposed to intervene and take over everything. It’s nonsensical, of course, but it’s also rude on every level. Why would *anyone* listen to or take orders from a person like that?
Body odor in sweat comes down to a single nucleotide. People with A (adenine) in both copies of the gene have no body odor. This is rare. If you edited out the guanine and replaced them with adenine, the deodorant companies go out of business. More likely they will edit something in that enslaves us to some other product.
The ban on research for genetically modified embryos is so hands-down idiotic. Gene editing research will be done in the future whether it be 5 or 50 years from now, so why not regulate it like we do with literally all other medical treatments? It’s unethical to stop progress so that people with genetic diseases spend their lives suffering.
Fear-mongering movies like Gattaca are more of an indictment of applying free market capitalism to healthcare and poor government oversight than a genuine discussion on gene editing. The opposite situation, what we have now with the Dickey-Wicker amendment and FDA freeze on clinical trial for embryos, is just as dangerous and is literally responsible for thousands of deaths.
It’s like they want the dystopian futures portrayed in the 80’s movies to come true. And notice it’s the usual suspects.
there will be a generation of, probably Chinese, children who are so outrageously gifted that the norms will band together to wipe them out, only to discover that they already control our machines
at which point we will end up wearing dog collars and begging for food.
not surprised they would target vulnerable couples with genetic deseases to advance their agenda. Small steps toward genetic selection and enslavement starting behind the cover of good intentions.
Frankly, without any hyperbole, it’s only a matter of time until the elites will attempt to make their offspring into a biological upper caste.
Genetic engineering can never be banned globally. Even with international treaties, there *will* be havens in the world that will permit it, and thus become destinations for medical tourism by rich elites. Once designer babies are born, they become a problem with no ethically sound solution. Thus the door will be open for a billionaire couples to breed a generation of children that are literally biologically superior to the children of the rest of the human race.
With that in mind, I’d rather that genetic engineering was unbanned and made as widely accessible as possible, with all the problems that entails.
GMO babies are going to crazy. Imagine the racism that’s going to be around when they show up.
Well that seems like conspiracy to commit a crime. Why isn’t he in jail yet?
The irony is that they might inadvertently speed run another Habsburg jaw by only commingling with other “elites.”
The ban on this stuff is based on sort of the moral and ethical concerns involved, saying those need to be solved before proceeding. Thing is there’s been this ban for a while and there’s never been any attempt to actually sort that stuff out. It’s just been a ban, any benefits humanity could possibly reap from controlled development in this area just ignored.
We could possibly be curing genetic illnesses that plague or end the lives of millions of people, we don’t know though because pursuing the needed experiments is forbidden. I know there’s reasons for concern around the eugenics of it all and regarding the possibility of harm for those born from such research. I just think those things, with proper planning and oversight, can be controlled for and the results could change life on Earth for the better. So personally, I’d like to see at least tentative steps taken towards progress in the field.
Just do this research on a remote island somewhere in the south Pacific and it will be fine.
Well, yeah, in case you haven’t noticed the current Regime doesn’t give two farts about precedent, bribes work much better.
Without regulation, and active enforcement, the largest corporations can do literally anything they want.
I wish I were a designer baby. Imagine being a fking Primarch.
Gasp, a group of people known for being amoral doing one of the most amoral things ever. These people would have probably been pro chem warfare in the first world war, provided they could make money.
They usually try to frame it as “We are going to eliminate genetic disorders” but it’s rarely for such altruistic purposes.