A CRISPR View of Life
By Shweta Sahu Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons We now live in a society where many are trying to get a leg up where they can, whether it be through pharmacological neuroenhancement (like Ritalin and Adderall) or other neurotechnologies (like transcranial direct current simulation ). Technology also allows us to exert an even earlier influence on neurodevelopmental disorders through prenatal genetic testing for fetuses. Such technologies include amniocentesis and chorionic villus sampling , that screen for Down’s , Edwards ’ and Patau’s syndromes, and give parents the chance to decide whether they would like to terminate or continue with their pregnancy. One article even claims 53% of all pregnancies were aborted following prenatal diagnoses of Down’s Syndrome, though there is still much dispute over the exact numbers. More recently, research has turned to looking into how to intervene at even earlier stages with gene editing of embryos . CRISPR (clustered regularly interspace...