Writing Resources
Human germline engineering is the process in which a human s inherited traits or genes are adapted This is attained through altering specimen within the germinal cells for instance the oocyte and spermatogonium Human germline engineering should not be confused with gene therapy Gene therapy consists of altering somatic cells which are all cells in the body that are not involved in reproduction While gene therapy does change the genome of the targeted cells these cells are not within the germline so the alterations are not heritable and cannot be passed on to the next generation This attempt was rather unsuccessful only a small fraction of the embryos successfully spliced the new genetic material and many of the embryos contained a large amount of random mutations Currently there are no successfully engineered humans but there are many prospective uses such as curing genetic diseases and disorders In the first study published regarding human germline engineering the researchers attempted to edit the HBB gene which codes for the human β globin protein In an extreme case people would be able to effectively create the offspring that they want with traits of their choosing
