Yes, retroviral gene therapy is in clinical trials, though I don’t know if they’re human or nonhuman trials. There’s still a lot of testing to be done before it’ll see any approval.
As for what is holding us back, there’s ethical problems to consider. Certain diseases are obviously ones we’d want to get rid of, like Huntington’s disease. However, would it be ethical to prevent autism? ADHD?
Ensuring that we don’t wander into the realm of eugenics is really important.
If I was a parent I wouldn’t want my kid to have cancer or something similar if I carried that gene. I would like for my kid not to have it so he or she can live long.
Yes, but imagine it starts to transform into avoiding ADHD, and after some time avoiding gingers
And what about being gay or trans, or even modifying race-associated traits?
Ethics, mainly
Assuming corps don’t crush it I think we are very close to gene therapy but it will come in many forms. Get your immune system to clear out bad things or get your cells to make correct proteins and im sure other things I can’t think of at the moment.
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