Gene Editing and CRISPR: 3 Ways We Are Rewriting the Human Genome Right Now — And the 3 Questions No One Is Asking

This article examines three ways CRISPR gene editing is currently rewriting the human genome and three questions that the speed of this technology's development has so far outrun. The scientific context covers: the FDA approval of Casgevy (December 2023) as the world's first CRISPR-based medicine for sickle cell disease and beta-thalassemia; the New England Journal of Medicine publication (May 2025, DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa2504747) of the world's first personalised CRISPR base-editing therapy for a single patient — Baby KJ — with CPS1 deficiency, developed and administered by CHOP and University of Pennsylvania in six months; 239 active gene-editing clinical trials in 2024 spanning cancer immunotherapy, hereditary disease, and chronic viral infections; and the He Jiankui affair (2018) and its governance consequences including the Third International Summit's 2023 reaffirmation that germline editing is not acceptable. The three questions examined: who defines a genetic defect worthy of correction (the eugenics history and disability rights frameworks); who can afford the $2.2 million cure (India's 20 million sickle cell disease carriers and global access equity); and what does the Indian philosophical tradition — Panchamahabhuta, Karma-Sanskara, Prakriti-Purusha, and Aham Brahmasmi — say about the authority to permanently alter the biological substrate of future human beings.