"First, a little background on human gene-hacking, also known as germline gene editing. On top of being wildly unethical - and we're talking Frankenstein levels here - human gene-editing has also been strictly prohibited in the US by an act of Congress. However, and this is a huge caveat, the congressional ban only affects research done with federal funds, meaning privately-funded germline gene editing is technically allowed, though anyone caught doing it runs the risk of becoming a pariah in the scientific community."
"In genetics circles, anxiety over germline gene editing is so palpable that leading scientists and trade organizations have called for a 10-year global moratorium on the practice. The Chinese biophysicist He Jiankui - one of the few to ever risk a career on the practice that we know of - was sentenced to three years in prison and a lifetime of scientific exile after he admitted to producing genetically modified twins back in 2018."
"Preventive is a strictly private commercial venture underwritten by a lineup of some of the tech industry's wealthiest figures, including Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, per the WSJ. For the last six months,Preventive has been working to create a child born from a hacked embryo, which has been tinkered with to erase a hereditary disease. As the paper tells it, the company's executives have recently identified an anonymous couple worried about that very issue, and who are interested in Preventive's services."
Germline gene editing alters embryos and raises profound ethical concerns, prompting calls for a global moratorium among leading scientists and trade groups. U.S. law bans federally funded germline editing, but the ban does not extend to privately funded work, creating a legal gap. He Jiankui received prison time and professional exile after producing genetically modified twins in 2018. A private startup, Preventive, backed by wealthy tech figures including Brian Armstrong and Sam Altman, has pursued editing embryos to remove hereditary disease and reportedly identified an anonymous couple interested in its services. Preventive's CEO denies active talks and cites U.S. regulatory constraints as a reason to work overseas.
Read at Futurism
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