CRISPR-based gene therapy, speculating about a time-table
/We’re still a long way from using gene-editing for medical conditions?
Gene editing has been in the news lately due to an ethically reckless experiment in which human embryos were subjected to an inefficient form of gene editing. The subjects, now born, gained uncertain protection from HIV in exchange for a big collection of potential risks. A large number of ethicists and scientists agreed that this isn't the sort of thing we should be using gene editing for.
Gene editing will likely always come with a bit of risk; when you're cutting and pasting DNA in millions of cells, extremely rare events can't be avoided. So the ethical questions come down to how we can minimize those risks and what conditions make them worth taking.
