CRISPR-cas9 (CRISPR) technology holds the potential benefit of unlocking a new generation of human health, albeit only with necessary and rigid regulations on its use in research. To maximize the positive potential of CRISPR regulations must ensure equitable access and responsible development while promoting its use in potentially groundbreaking innovations.
Next Generation Medical Potential: Promotion Through Policy
Innovations from CRISPR research could produce treatments that drastically reduce the burden of disease on society (probability: 70-99%). From nuclear power to pesticides, many modern technologies artificially mutate genetic material by modifying cells carefully calibrated coding. Additionally, the importance of gene transcription to human development means that inherited errors in the genome often cause similarly dangerous results (CITE). Here, CRISPR has the potential to repair genes prior to the transcription of the damaged material, preventing dangerous reproduction from rapidly mutating cells (HARVARD). The ability to correct for those errors will avert symptoms and reduce the societal burden of diagnoses on patients, the healthcare system, and the entire economy.
Success would alter the medical landscape and must be directed with appropriate policy. Given the colossal expenditure on cancer research, redirecting a portion of that funding towards CRISPR experimentation through incentives and direct spending would allow for the technology to be assessed for efficacy against artificially induced mutations. Research in the field has already started and indicates promising treatments (HARVARD) meaning sustained investment now could pay large dividends in total benefits.
However, to gather the full benefit government policy must financially incentivise research for less prevalent diseases as their tendency to generate less profit means they are often neglected in research (CITE). By accounting for all disorders, the medical potential of CRISPR will save lives, maintain a stronger workforce and save billions in healthcare expenses producing a more stable and secure society in its wake (NIH TEXAS x nation). Internationally, millions could be treated by for less cost than ever and new technologies currently hindered by genetic concerns potentially made available meaning that advancing research with CRISPR is not just beneficial, it is imperative.
Stimulating Future Science
Genetic modification using CRISPR allows scientists to account for future scientific obstacles ahead of time. As advanced technologies collide with biological barriers in the race to conquer new scientific territory, CRISPR’s flexibility (CITE) will help overcome disastrous challenges at a fast pace (FA). With overpopulation and climate change threatening society, agricultural production is strained and extraterrestrial settlement beckons. However, both fields demand revolutionary genetic innovations–the kind which CRISPR is designed to create– for continued advancement.
As countries struggle to feed progressively larger populations on less land, CRISPR allows for the development of hardier, more efficient crops. It took farmers thousands of years to domesticate and optimize the crops we eat today yet they’re still subject to environmental factors like insects and drought. As famines strike increasingly often and higher sea levels cover arable land, countries cannot afford decades for the next generation of foods. Instead, CRISPR will allow for incredibly efficient modifications to existing crops opening the potential for insect resistance, smaller water requirements, and increased yield. Together, these factors will prevent famine and increase stability internationally, protecting society and security in one.
Pushing the potential for human settlement off of Earth requires the ability to rewrite genetic coding to adapt to new environments. Deep space travel does genetic damage due to radiation and the challenges posed by life on a non-Earth planet are many. Fast acting gene therapy, which CRISPR is especially effective at (CITE),
With an eye further towards the future, it is in the interest of government to fund and incentivize research with CRISPR optimizing life in extreme environments both in the space and agriculture industries and in basic research labs. Regardless of immediate necessity the demand for these CRISPR based technologies only grows more acute.
genetically optimized crops are the . Policy can direct funding towards both basic and applied research in these fields, corraling private and academic labs into work that will pay off for all of society in the long term.
Scientific and Security Risks: Necessary Regulations
CRISPR could significantly increase the accessibility of weapons of mass destruction. One of the most unique aspects of the technology is its mobility; since it does not require huge resources to implement it could essentially be effective in a home lab (CITE). Correspondingly, CRISPR is usable by nearly anyone, including malicious actors. With the potential for gene editing to create a synthetic bioweapon, the danger from CRISPR in rogue hands cannot be understated.
Terrorist groups could unleash unmatched panic with a modified virus or extremist governments could develop blights that devastate agriculture (FA). With the same methods that produce upgraded crops, scientists could increase the virility of a pathogen with relative ease. To counter this, the technology must be regulated such that only accredited labs in academic, private, or government settings have access to CRISPR. Additionally those locations need to have the necessary security to prevent the technology from being compromised and shared irresponsibly. Laws should ensure that exclusivity in access is maintained through mandating outside approval of research to prevent unqualified or malevolent consequences from the technology.
Health Outcomes: Ensuring Equality in Access
As a revolutionary medical technology, the advances available with CRISPR have the potential to exacerbate the existing disparity in health outcomes. Given the state of equality in global healthcare, beneficial aspects of the technology are likely to be only available to those in wealthier communities and developed nations due to its high cost (HARVARD COST ASSESSMENT). This would create a fundamental disparity in quality and type of care available to patients solely due to socioeconomic status. To protect against this, governments must fund research to make the technology more affordable as well as subsidizing healthcare to prevent a medical division from emerging based on access to CRISPR.
Together with genetic repair and positive modification comes the ability to make superfluous and cosmetic additions to the genetic code. The results likely include the potential to determine physiological traits and more at the embryonic stage with the changes manifesting as the human develops and creating a fundamental genetic differentiation in the human species. Worse than a division in healthcare, this would create an actual separation in humans through induced evolution of sorts (GENENG). While these innovations may initially seem as innocent as a change in eye color, the technology could rapidly spiral into untested territory if laws are not passed restricting human genetic modification without medical necessity.