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Is there a risk in genetic engineering that you're not only hurting yourself but also potentially any children that you have? I don't know the answer to this, b
by jon-wood 7y ago
Is there a risk in genetic engineering that you're not only hurting yourself but also potentially any children that you have? I don't know the answer to this, but intuitively it seems like a possibility that you could accidentally introduce a genetic trait that won't become apparent for generations.
- JoeAltmaier 7y agoDon't think so. Traits passed on through eggs and sperm, not muscle, bone etc. If sex cells not affected, then no issue of passing on changes?
- pmarreck 7y agoI am not a biologist, but do these sorts of therapies discriminate which cells they actually affect?
- dekhn 7y agoit depends on the details. if you collect cells from a patient, filter them very carefully so only a particular type of cell is there, treat that in vitro, then reinject.... it should (with some caveats) only affect the cells you treated. if you inject a therapy into the body (muscle, blood, liver, etc), there is a non-zero chance that some germ cells can be modified. It depends on the vector, the methodology, random chance, etc, etc.