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comment by OftenBen
OftenBen  ·  3075 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: First CRISPR clinical trial gets green light from US panel

Depends.

How much cash you got?





user-inactivated  ·  3075 days ago  ·  link  ·  
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OftenBen  ·  3075 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    Rich parents will be able to design smarter kids,

They kinda do this already if you consider optimizing parental nutrition and fitness prior to conception, ensuring ideal nutrient content and minimal natal toxins for the baby, and more enrichment classes and such than you can shake a stick at, starting in early infancy as making changes to the babies 'potential.'

Considering how much effect epigenetics has on your final phenotypic expression I would say that this is already occurring today, just in a less targeted manner. It's the difference between selectively breeding shorter and shorter wheat crops, and just editing a gene to make the plant less responsive to the hormone that makes it grow taller.

illu45  ·  3074 days ago  ·  link  ·  
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OftenBen  ·  3073 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Those things (as far as I know) don't cause genetic change.

edricarica  ·  3047 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Although they can contribute to epigenetic changes, which can also be hereditary (as far as I understand, anyway, I'm a layman with a liberal arts background).