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A28 SCIENCE
Saturday 29 december 2018

AP-NORC Poll: Most support gene editing to protect babies

By LAURAN NEERGAARD search, I would be OK with
AP Medical Writer government funding,” he
WASHINGTON (AP) — Most said. “I just don’t have a
Americans say it would be lot of confidence people
OK to use gene-editing wouldn’t use it for their own
technology to create ba- gain.” Indeed, the poll un-
bies protected against a covers a lack of trust in sci-
variety of diseases — but ence: About a third think
a new poll shows they’d this kind of gene editing
draw the line at changing will be used before it’s ad-
DNA so children are born equately tested, as many
smarter, faster or taller. scientists say happened in
A month after startling China. Nearly 9 in 10 peo-
claims of the births of the ple think the technology
world’s first gene-edited will be used for unethical
babies in China, the poll reasons, including 52 per-
by The Associated Press- cent who say this is very
NORC Center for Public likely to happen.
Affairs Research finds peo- And roughly three-quarters
ple are torn between the of Americans say gene
medical promise of a tech- editing probably wouldn’t
nology powerful enough to be affordable for the aver-
alter human heredity and age person — raising the
concerns over whether it specter of certain genetic
will be used ethically. diseases becoming a prob-
Jaron Keener, a 31-year- lem only for the poor.
old exhibit designer at Pitts- “People appear to realize
burgh’s Carnegie Museum there’s a major question
of Natural History, said he’s of how we should over-
opposed to “rich people see and monitor use of this
being able to create de- In this Oct. 9, 2018 photo, an embryologist adjusts a microplate containing embryos that technology if and when
signer babies.” were injected with gene-editing components in a laboratory in Shenzhen in southern China’s it becomes available,”
But like the majority of Guangdong province. said Columbia’s Klitzman.
Americans, Keener would Associated Press “What is safe enough? And
support gene editing in alter the resulting child in that might develop later in create babies resistant to who will determine that?
embryos to prevent incur- ways that can be passed life, such as cancers. HIV infection, a target that The government? Or clini-
able diseases. His mother to future generations — a Side effects are possible, many scientists in the U.S. cians who say, ‘Look, we
has lupus, an inflamma- step with such profound such as a gene-editing at- and elsewhere decried be- did it in Country X a few
tory disease that may have implications that interna- tempt that accidentally cause there are effective times and it seems to be ef-
both environmental and tional science guidelines alters the wrong DNA spot, ways to prevent the AIDS fective.’”
genetic triggers. say it shouldn’t be tested and the poll finds 85 per- virus. ___
Lupus has been “a looming in human pregnancies until cent think that risk is at least The poll shows most people The AP-NORC poll of 1,067
presence my entire life. I’ve more lab-based research somewhat likely. think it is at least some- adults was conducted
been around somebody determines it’s safe to try. But about 7 in 10 Americans what likely that gene edit- Dec. 13-16 using a sample
with a chronic illness and The AP-NORC poll shows oppose using gene editing ing could wipe out certain drawn from NORC’s prob-
I’ve seen the toll that has about 7 in 10 Americans to alter capabilities such as inherited diseases and ability-based AmeriSpeak
taken, not just on her life, favor one day using gene- intelligence or athletic tal- lead to other medical ad- Panel, which is designed
but the life of my family,” editing technology to pre- ent, and to alter physical vances. Yet despite the to be representative of the
he said. vent an incurable or fatal features such as eye color medical enthusiasm, more U.S. population. The margin
Gene editing is like a bio- disease a child otherwise or height. Americans oppose than fa- of sampling error for all re-
logical cut-and-paste pro- would inherit, such as cys- The poll highlights that if vor government funding for spondents is plus or minus
gram, letting scientists snip tic fibrosis or Huntington’s gene editing of embryos testing on human embryos 4.1 percentage points.
out a section of DNA to disease. Roughly two-thirds ever moves into fertility to develop gene-editing Respondents were first se-
delete, replace or repair a of Americans also favor clinics, there will be some technology — 48 percent lected randomly using
gene. Altering adult cells using gene editing to pre- hard choices about what to 26 percent. About an- address-based sampling
would affect only the pa- vent a child from inheriting non-fatal disorders should other quarter of the popu- methods, and later inter-
tient being treated. a non-fatal condition such qualify, said Columbia Uni- lation takes no stand. viewed online or by phone.
But editing genes in eggs, as blindness, and even to versity bioethicist Dr. Robert Without that research, how ___
sperm or embryos would reduce the risk of diseases Klitzman. What if scientists could gene editing ever AP reporters Carla K. John-
could pinpoint genes in- become a choice for fami- son in Seattle and Hannah
volved with depression or lies hoping to avoid a dis- Fingerhut in Washington
autism or obesity — would ease? contributed to this report.
they be OK to edit? “That’s a good question,” ___
“It’s one thing to look at the said Keener, the Pittsburgh The Associated Press Health
extremes of fatal diseases museum worker, who op- & Science Department re-
versus cosmetic things, but poses such funding for fear ceives support from the
in the middle are going to that research would lead Howard Hughes Medical
be these very different is- to designer babies rather Institute’s Department of
sues,” Klitzman said. than fighting disease. Science Education. The AP
That reported gene editing “If there would be a way is solely responsible for all
in China was an attempt to to narrow the scope of re- content.q