Jeff Carroll inherited the DNA mutation that causes Huntington’s disease. It means that in a decade or two, he’ll lose control over his body and slowly go mad, just like his mother.
That’s the reason Carroll, 38, says he’d be in favor of gene editing embryos. He says the idea of correcting DNA errors in the next generation has no “ick factor” for him at all. “I have no compunctions about it,” says Carroll, who is a neuroscientist at Western Washington University, in Bellingham. “I am saying, please, please do mess with our DNA.”