[bronzeage]

This shouldn't be legal. If people fuck themselves up the worst case isn't just them dying, they can accidently unleash a virus. Pretty unlikely, but just the smallest possibility is still too much when the outcome can be so bad.

It's not unreasonable that tinkering with dna will unleash some dormant retrovirus.

[lukejduncan]

I'm not sure why you're being downvoted. Whether or not you agree with the conclusions, there are very real concerns about the externalities of self gene-editing.

[tuxxy]

I remember a few years back where a few biologists released a paper on how to weaponize influenza from CRISPR (IIRC). Before it got produced (or after?) the DoD stepped in and had them redact and classify their paper to have it (re-)published.

Does anyone else remember this? Maybe link to the paper, as well?

[tectonic]

That seems unlikely to me.

What does seem likely is that they give both themselves and their germ line a genetic mutation. Editing yourself and then having children would be incredibly irresponsible. If you affect your germ cells, you're not just editing yourself, but all of your descendants.

[nexuist]

if you can edit yourself to change your genes....can't your children edit themselves to fix whatever you mess up? Or to just revert to normal genes, regardless of what their parents had?