Advisory Panel, Tiptoeing Into Ethical Minefield, Reverses Guidance On Editing Human Embryos
The National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine said that modifying genes in embryos is acceptable if the alterations are designed to prevent babies from acquiring genes known to cause “serious diseases and disability,” and only when there is no “reasonable alternative.”
Los Angeles Times:
To Prevent Serious Medical Conditions, Scientists Should Be Able To Edit People's DNA, Panel Says
Scientists should be allowed to alter a person’s DNA in ways that will be passed on to future generations, but only to prevent serious and strongly heritable diseases, according to a new report from the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine. However, tinkering with these genes in order to enhance or alter traits such as strength, intelligence or beauty should remain off-limits, the report authors concluded. Changing the so-called germline — effectively, editing humanity’s future by altering genes in human reproductive cells — is illegal in the United States. It has largely been considered ethically off-limits here as well, at least while bioethicists and scientists pondered the unforeseen effects and unexamined moral dilemmas of using new gene-editing technologies. (Healy, 2/14)