Margo and Jeff drive to Hudini’s office, not far from Margo’s main clinic. It being a weekend, the parking lot is deserted but the door is ajar. Margo thinks how nice of Hudini to pop it open for them. As they saunter up to the door, they hear animal sounds from within. Entering the door, they see the source of the animal sounds coming from a room across the entry way. Margo quickly estimates that there are about twenty small cages back there, so it is not a small facility. Before they can cross over to peer in, Dr. Hudini enters the hall from a side door, shuts the door to the cages and invites them in.
“Do you do research with animals?” Margo asks in a tone clearly indicating her confusion.
“Yes, we don’t have office hours today, but caring for the animals is nearly a 24 x 7 job, as you know. I may need your veterinarian services from time to time. Perhaps we can even arrange a trade?”
Margo says she can make that happen but notes the quick and adroit deflection of the subject.
Dr. Hudini leads them into a rather upscale looking conference room with a video projector in front of a table large enough to sit more than a dozen guests. Margo and Jeff sit facing the projector while Dr. Hudini takes a seat on the side and angles his seat towards his guests.
“How is the 3-legged cat adapting to her new home?”
“She hates me, she loves Jeff and the dog hates her, so there is some symmetry developing,” Margo says. Being very anxious to get to the details, Margo cuts short the small talk and delves right in. “We read through your brochure and it sounds to me like you are implanting limbs in fetuses. Is that right????”
“Yes, essentially that is right.” Margo throws up her hands in mock surprise, giving Jeff the wide eyed, slack jaw expression.
“I’ve been doing this surgery for 20 years in India. Just recently I’ve developed a method of splicing genes to create the extra limbs. The limb positioning is not precise yet, so we still use some surgical techniques to move them around a bit.” Dr. Hudini notes the look of disbelief in Jeff’s eyes and decides to switch the normal presentation around and go to the video to let Jeff’s brain quiet before delving into the scientific information. “Before I get into the detail, let me show you a video of our clinic in India.”
The video starts rolling showing a soccer game of kids in their early teens, all with 3 or 4 legs and goalies with extra arms. To Margo and Jeff, the kids appear to be moving very quickly, but they aren’t sure if it is because they are accustomed to watching younger kids play. Some of the kids are not running all that smoothly, using the additional limb almost like a catapult to spring forward. All of them appear adept at controlling the ball.
“These are the older kids, ages 12 to 13 or so. They are all from the first phase trials where the limbs were added surgically soon after they were born, before the gene splicing technology became available. They have all learned to use their new limbs with fine motor coordination. Statistically, there is no difference in skills between the implants and the natural limbs. With 3 legs, they run, on average, about 25% faster than children with just 2 legs. With 4 legs, they get about another 10%. We have fifth limbers, that is what we call all patients with additional limbs, running the mile in about 3:25, so bionic speeds, without bionics.
“We started with legs before arms because technically, at the time, it was a much easier process. The bottom of the human spine is really a vestigial tail and with many animals, the tails are well controlled. That area already has all the required connections to the spine, so we grew legs from stem cells and then attached them to the end of the spine. Then, we split the bottom of the spine to add two legs. “Dr. Hudini points to the bottom of the spine on an x-ray image and the next few slides show the legs being surgically implanted in the spine.
“Next we see the new generation of fifth limbers, acquired through gene splicing. They are born knowing how to use the fifth limb, and they avoid the trauma of surgery. Other than that, we see no difference between the ones added surgically and the ones added via gene splicing.”
“You did say there is surgery in the womb, though?” asks Margo.
“At this time, yes. As we get better with the splicing technology, we expect to do less and less surgery. Right now, we sometimes have to move the 5th limb a bit or remove additional limbs if there are more than desired,” he says looking at Margo. Then, pointing to the video, he continues, “Here is the music hall with our 3 and 4 armed musicians. They write totally new music for their multiple hands and some have started designing and building their own instruments to more readily use those extra appendages. This shows the degree of dexterity achieved with these hands.”
The video shows a modified clarinet with many more keys on it and a musician with three arms using all the keys. There is a harpsichord with a musician with 3 hands on it. Next, the video shows a percussion player with a wide assortment of devices all around him, simultaneously working 4 arms on devices and Margo wonders about his feet.
“This is our own rock band, “Limbs Galore.” Dr. Hudini says as the video changes to the next area. “We have a few others. “
A wild looking drum set almost encircles the drummer. There are twice the number of cymbals normally in a kit, two large drums and an assortment of snares. Each of the drums has been painted with multiple limbs, floating around like a Chagall painting. There are two guitars with multiple throats, a piano with multiple level of keys and a guy playing the harmonica, a guitar and a keyboard simultaneously. Dr. Hudini turns up the sound for just a moment so they can hear the cacophony of good ole rock and rock and roll.
“The rest of the video shows random areas around the facility.”
The video continues to roll, showing a sculpture class with kids holding their sculpture with two hands while carving with the third. Next, it moves yo a driving range where the golfer tees up the ball with one hand and then swings with two arms while a third arm pops out to hold his head down. As the tape rolls Hudini continues to lecture. “Turns out that gene splicing is quite easy to accomplish. You’ve most likely read something about the technique, called CRISPR. We’ve long known that the body develops immunities against viruses, such as the chicken pox, but we never understood how the body recognized the virus years after exposure. Interestingly, the immune system clips part of the virus’s DNA and stores it for future reference. Once we figured out how this was done, clipping and inserting DNA in a lab setting was quite easy AND inexpensive. The equipment to perform this splicing only costs around $10K. “
Jeff, ever the practical one, asks if this is legal.
“It is not EXACTLY legal here in the states, which is why I do my human work in India. But, the government is not going to be able to prevent this type of work because it is so affordable there is no need for government grants and the equipment is readily available. Margo, I could teach you how to do it in a few days. Actually, you don’t even need me to teach you, you can just Google it. But, I can save you from a few missteps,” he adds with a smile. “If the US persists, they will fall farther and farther behind the medical community, but really, it will be impossible to monitor. Plus, when have humanitarian concerns stopped the advancement – or onslaught – of technology? Maybe slowed it down for a little while, but if history is any guide, resistance is somewhat feeble.”
“And what about the reaction to the community about the gene engineering part? I mean, people get upset about modifications made to corn!” says Jeff.
“Yes, but humans have been modifying food since near the beginning of agriculture. We are just getting better at it. I understand that here in the states it would be difficult to do this work. It took forever to allow genetically engineered mosquitoes here. They are the deadliest creature on earth, and people allow pesticides to be sprayed, which poison the environment and cause mutations, but have not eliminated the blood suckers. But a little gene modification to save over 400,000 lives a year? No. So, no, I don’t suppose the general public will be overly accepting at first.”
“Well, the good news is protesters can’t kill the “devil child,” says Jeff, really as a joke.
Margo was taking in the conversation, but between her pregnant brain and the inability to take her eyes off the video, she wasn’t completely processing everything. “They are so amazing!” comes out of her mouth before she can stifle it. Real intelligent analysis, Margo, she says to herself. She is not much of a poker player on this subject.
Hudini looks at both of them and inquires, “Tell me why do you want to do this?”
Jeff quickly answers, before Margo can refocus her thoughts, “I’m not sure we do”.
“Fair enough. Let’s back up. Can you tell me why you decided to have another child?”
With the video rolling its credits, Margo is now capable of refocusing on the conversation. “It was rather an accident,” she confesses. “My mother died of breast cancer while I was still in high school and when I turned 40, my doctor thought I should go off the pill. A few years later, a benign lump in my breast scared me so I just went off estrogen cold turkey. “
“It took us so long to get pregnant the first two times, we thought, at our age, we’d be safe for a little while,” adds Jeff.
“So, here I am, 43 and pregnant. Then, I started getting use to the idea of another child – you know; fix all the things we did wrong the first two times, when we were too busy with our careers. And truthfully, I’d really like to have a child who likes me better than Jeff, or maybe have an extraordinary child. I know, these aren’t the best reasons….”
“I don’t mean to suggest there are right or wrong reasons for doing this. I was just wondering about YOUR reason. However, this procedure would give you that extraordinary child! I know this is a lot to absorb, but you can’t think about it very long. We will need to perform the gene extract, splicing and reinsertion within the next few months. As a first step, come to my facility in Chennai. If you like everything, we can take the next steps there. If you decide against it, you’ve had a marvelous adventure in India. Any questions right now?”
“Have you read Jeff Colvin’s book “Talent is over-rated”? Margo asks.
“I’ve read excerpts from it. He gives lots of examples and statistics, but we could give many more that address the benefits of genetics. Of course there have been studies on twins that try to address the nature vs. nurture argument. This is all fine for the 90 percentile, but when you get above that or want to talk about elite performers, I would argue you need both genes and practice. Even then, there is the desire to excel – and perhaps there is a genetic component to that, too.“
“How about something to make us better parents?” Margo asks.
Shrugging both shoulders with palms upturned, Dr. Hudini says, “You punched out a teacher or two. Don’t be so hard on yourselves.”
Jeff thinks either Dr. Hudini is very well connected or it is already too late for him and Margo to slip out of town quietly. “So, can you CRISPR out the asshole gene?” Jeff asked.
“I’ll work on it for you. You get me a list of the biggest miscreants you know; and I’ll see if I can find the genetic link, “ Dr. Hudini adds, only half kidding.