cbsnews | There are few fields of medicine that are having a bigger impact on how
we treat disease than genetics. As we reported in October, the science
of genetics has gotten so sophisticated so quickly that it can be used
to not only treat serious diseases but prevent thousands of them well
before pregnancy even begins. Diseases that have stalked families for
generations -- like breast cancer -- are being literally stopped in
their tracks. Scientists can do that by creating and testing embryos in a
lab, then implanting into a mother's womb only the ones which appear
healthy. While the whole field is loaded with controversy, those who are
worried about passing on defective and potentially dangerous genes see
the opportunity to breed out disease.
But with the promise of this technology also comes the fear that
some parents would want to use it to select genetic traits in their
children that have nothing to do with disease - a debate Lee Silver
himself stoked when he wrote the patent for GenePeeks.
Norah
O'Donnell: We read your patent and it says your technology could be used
to assess whether a child could have other traits, like eye color, hair
color, social intelligence, even whether a child will have a widow's
peak? If your company is so focused on preventing disease, why would you
include those traits?
Lee Silver: The purpose of the list of
traits is simply to demonstrate that our technology can be used to study
anything that's genetically influenced. That doesn't mean we're going
to actually do that.
Norah O'Donnell: OK. But you're running a company? That could be big business?
Lee Silver: We are the ones who invented this technology and we're
going to use it to study pediatric disease. At the moment, we will make
sure the technology is used only for that purpose.
And at the
moment, you'll have to take his word for it because there are no real
rules in this country limiting what this kind of technology can be used
to screen for, leaving those decisions up to scientists like Lee Silver
and Mark Hughes.
Norah O'Donnell: So we should trust you to set the boundaries?
Dr. Mark Hughes: If I'm setting a boundary saying, "I'm not willing to
do that," that's no different from any other field of medicine. So
sure.
Norah O'Donnell: But do you wrestle with this at all? I mean, who is the gatekeeper?
Dr. Mark Hughes: That's the question. Should it be some group sitting
around a mahogany table or should it be all left up to the patient? If
it would get to the point where it was like cosmetic surgery, that would
be downright awful. But I'd think those are all straw men arguments.
And people asked me these very questions that you're asking me right
now, 25 years ago. And it hasn't happened.
