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Sam Altman & His Husband (Oliver Mulherin)
Many diseases that human beings go through are hereditary in nature.
Generation after generation, the disease, or at least the risk of it, remains.
A Silicon Valley startup, Preventive, wants to intervene.
Their aim? Make technology that allows parents to have gene-edited babies, ones that are free from any hereditary genetic disorders.
The gay couple, Open AI’s Sam Altman and Oliver Mulherin, are reportedly pouring “millions” into the startup to help build this technology.
Apart from them, Coinbase co-founder and CEO Brian Armstrong is also in the list of Silicon Valley heavyweights who are backing the biotech startup Preventive; as per Times of India.
WHAT IS PREVENTIVE DOING?
Simply put, Preventive wants to build technology that can rewrite genetic embryos so that when they grow into full babies, they do not inherit genetic disorders of their parents and their previous generations.
Currently, babies carry the DNA of their parents, and inherit medical conditions via it.
Preventive is seeking to alter this DNA and remove the sections that might be faulty or risky, in terms of medical complications, diseases, and illnesses. This means the genes would be “fixed” before the baby is born.
The anticipated result? A child growing up without a long list of family-inherited medical conditions and risks.
THE ETHICAL COMPLICATIONS
In theory and on the surface of it, altering DNA and helping a baby grow up into a healthy one without any risks sounds like a scientific breakthrough.
But critics are of the opinion that what Preventive is trying to accomplish is scientifically risky, morally tricky, and can cause social chaos by clearly dividing society into biological lines.
For instance, if only the financially well-off individuals can afford gene-editing for their future babies, where does it make the others stand? And more importantly, where does it stop? Will parents begin picking traits (intelligence, intellect, appearance) for these “designer babies?”
Despite this, Preventive believes that responsible progress in embryo editing is possible.
Even with the widespread criticism, influential people from Silicon Valley continue to invest in the biotech startup that is eyeing gene-edited babies.