Highlander Issue 6 May 2018

Page 1

The Highlander May 2018 Vol IX Issue VI

Carlmont High School — Belmont, California

www.scotscoop.com

@scotscoopnews

Fast Metabolism

Blue Eyes Anti Cancer

BUILD-A-BABY Future possibility of genetically engineering your child

Photo Illustration by Jordan Hanlon

Mona Murhamer ScotLight Editor-in-Chief

When we were five years old, we decided what color our teddy bear would be, stuffed it with cotton, and dressed it up in whatever outfit we wanted. Now, instead of picking out their stuffed animals’ features, our kids may be picking out their kids’ features. Genetic manipulation of a fetus is a technology that will become a possibility for parents in the next 25 years, according to ABC News. “What’s going to happen over the next 10 to 25 years is that we are going to... understand how all of the genes in the genome effect how tall we are, whether we are likely to be thin or heavy, and then I think scientists are going to probe the brain and understand how people have different personalities and different levels of abilities,” said geneticist Lee Silver of Princeton University in an interview with ABC News. While our automatic assumption is that parents will now want to design babies with flawless skin, beautiful eyes, and shiny hair, scientists first hope to tackle the internal defects a baby may receive through its genes. With the prospect of choosing the genes that will develop into the “ideal” baby, scientists hope to create a pathway for new parents to medically enhance their child, and, hopefully, eliminate genetic diseases, such as sickle-cell anemia or cystic fibrosis. Before being able to pilot test the meth-

Weed In Medicine The future of CBD in health care and whether it’s beneficial Page 9

od on humans, researchers must first look why that same technology couldn’t be apat CRISPR, a family of DNA sequences in plied to human embryos.” bacteria that create snippets of virus DNA. While the goal would be to breed out To successfully complete the pilot test, they genetic diseases, geneticists worry that promust prevent CRISPR from creating muta- spective parents would engineer their child tions in the embryo. to be, more or less, superhuman. Over the past year, Alta Charo, a bioethAccording to Dr. Juan Carlos Izpisua icist at the University of Wisconsin Madi- Belmonte, a co-author and geneticist at the son, says researchers “have made progress Salk Institute, the hormone Erythropoietin in understanding and preventing the ways (EPO), which some athletes have been disin which genome-editing techniques, such ciplined for taking, “is produced by a gene, as CRISPR, cause unintended mutations,” so you could, in theory, engineer yourself according to Scientific American. to produce more EPO.” So, the outlook is positive for coming Modifications like these may result in generations, right? societal inequity, says Marcy Darnovsky, Not necessarily. executive director of the Center for GenetAccording to ABC News, genes aren’t ics and Society. the only factor that determine how a child “Allowing any form of human germdevelops. Factors such as environment and line modification leaves the way open for how one is raised can affect the develop- all kinds — especially when fertility clinics ment of a person, in addition to their ge- start offering ‘genetic upgrades’ to those netic makeup. able to afford them,” Darnovsky said in a Essentially, talents and traits don’t come statement. from a single gene, but rather complex geBut parents seem to be opposed to the netic makeups that can’t exactly be modi- idea of their future baby possibly ruling the fied just yet. world. In fact, according to the New York “If everyone programmed their own Times, some scientists estimate height is kids, then everyone would be ‘super smart’ influenced by as many as 93,000 genetic or ‘super athletes.’ There would be a lot of variations, and most physical diseases and the same type of people. There wouldn’t psychiatric disorders follow suit. be as much diversity or variety,” expectant Despite the complexity of the practice, mother Risa Goldberg said in an interview some scientists remain hopeful. with ABC News. “We already perfected [the technolMore importantly, some parents say ogy needed to choose genes] in mice so it’s they would opt out of genetic selection out already being applied to lots of mammal of fear of harming their unborn child. species – sheep, cows, goats,” Silver said to “We didn’t [genetically modify the sex] ABC News. “There is absolutely no reason because if something ever went wrong with In This Issue

College Pathways Carlmont students go in different directions after high school Page 10

Gender Equalty in Sports Co-ed athletics spark a united future between men and women Page 15

the child, I would never be able to forgive myself, and I’d always be looking back on it and saying, ‘Is it because I did this? And is the reason [something went wrong] because I decided to do pre-gender selection?’” Janice Chabkin, another expectant mother said to ABC News. For others, like Tara Dezham, a senior with Celiac disease, genetic selection could be a possibility in her future. “When I was a kid, I would go to parties and not be able to eat pizza and cake, and now, it’s hard because there are still some foods that don’t have gluten free versions,” she said. “I would probably choose to have the gene removed because it’s hard for me to deal with [Celiac disease], so I wouldn’t want it for my kids.” So, for now, genetic selection seems to be at a standstill while parents and ethicists alike struggle to find the balance between helping and hurting the upcoming generations. If we want options, I guess we’ll have to stick to Build-A-Bear for now.

See more topics covering subjects about the possibilities in the world’s future - Changing demographics of U.S. Page 2 - Future of gun control Page 4

- Possible cancer cures world wide Page 7

News Campus Lifestyle Features Center Community Sports Opinion Back

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