I’m not a huge fan of superhero movies, but the X-men series is a different story. I like this particular branch of superhero films due to the scientific reasoning behind each character's mutation and absurd abilities yielding interesting dynamics and political issues. Interestingly, we are quickly approaching a time where the X-men series may become not merely scientific fantasy. With the ongoing genetic experiments regarding CRISPR cas9, human babies are being experimented and raising ethical concerns all over the world. Yet despite the possibility of creating children immune to devastating diseases or creating the future set of X-men, the artificial lacing of one’s DNA still runs the risk of flaws due to the yet immature nature of the theory.

The discovery of the CRISPR spacer sequence, which stands for clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat, allows for the artificial binding or dissecting of an individual’s DNA as the very sequence can transcribe into an RNA sequence leading it to the DNA. In layman's terms, a particular enzyme generated by the CRISPR system is able to bind with the selected DNA and replace it with itself, ultimately vetoing the original sequence’s purpose and creating a new genetically modified strand. Through such methods, one would presumably be able to modify another’s DNA in hopes of making it immaculate and free of any adverse a diseases. Or maybe even super-human strength!?

A recent incident in China highlights the inevitable conflict such scientific outbreak can yield. The Chinese scientist He Jiankui of Southern University of Science and Technology claims to have recently created twin girls from embryos with the utilization of genome editing. Mr. Jiankui has claimed to have created children who are immune to HIV/AIDS thanks to the CRISPR cas9. Despite the incident appearing as an achievement, however, the Chinese government has confisticated his research along with forewaring a potential punishment of death for further human experimentation.

Therefore, in a similar fashion to the political disputes in the X-men movies, the recent creation of these two genetically-manipulated twins currently stands in the spotlight of the ethical concerns and conflict over human experimentation. In the end, the punishment of death might be a little extreme, yet the possibility of damaging one’s future offsprings is also not a light crime. With science ever changing, we live in a world where we don’t know what's around the corner and where the next super heroes may originate, yet we still must be prepared and ethically aware of everything--including the basics.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/26/health/gene-editing-babies-china.html

Picture: https://www.rcsb.org/structure/4un3