Gene editing isn’t about designer babies, it’s about hope for people like me | Alex Lee

What gives someone without an incurable condition such as blindness the right to stand in the way of potentially life-saving treatments?

A landmark US study by scientists at Oregon Health and Science University in Portland has for the first time successfully edited out a genetic mutation that could cause heart disease, but the fearmongering over designer babies rages on. Where would research into cures for genetic diseases be without a good old debate around the scary future of eugenics?

For once, let's not allow that rhetoric to take over the headlines, in the way that it did two years ago, when research into mitochondrial replacement therapy, so-called three-parent babies, made strides. This is a good and promising breakthrough, not something to fear.