On September 13, the DNA festival will take place, a festival that is about cutting and pasting into human DNA. The afternoon will be presented by historian and science journalist Eveline van Rijswijk.
As a historian and science journalist, Eveline van Rijswijk is particularly interested in future dilemmas surrounding reproduction. She will tell NEMO Kennislink how she thinks about adapting embryo DNA.
How do you deal with CRISPR-Cas?
“As a presenter for a video from the University of the Netherlands, I once did a DNA test to see if I am a carrier of 175 known hereditary disorders. I was mostly curious beforehand. Only after the results did I start to think more:'What if something had come out? What do you do with that information if you turn out to be a carrier of a certain hereditary disease? And how would you deal with that in the future if CRISPR-Cas is an option?'”
Is this technique important for your work and why?
“The subject interests me and I often come up with it. When I came up with the 'Talkshow of the Future', a talk show in TivoliVredenburg in which we take a look at the future with scientists, I thought the first show should be about future dilemmas around reproduction."
How do you feel about adapting embryo DNA?
“The big question is:is it safe? And then:what are we going to apply it to? In the case of very serious illnesses or also when improving people? We need to talk about that and that is why I think a dialogue about this is very good.”
“New techniques often encounter resistance. So I always try to put these kinds of developments in a historical context. The first doctors to perform IVF faced a lot of criticism and opponents who even harassed them. While there are now millions of IVF children in the world."
Do you think we will use the CRISPR technique in human reproduction in the future?
"Yes I think so. But when? As a historian, I would not dare to make a statement about that…”
What opportunities or concerns do you see?
“The question is:how far do we go? With certain serious illnesses, I understand that you want to remove an error from the DNA. But are we also going to do that to prevent autism? Or with illnesses that only cause some discomfort? I am concerned about the inequality that can arise between people.”