Calls for IVF laws to be changed to take advantage of gene editing technique

Britain may need to change its IVF laws to allow the genetic modification of human embryos so that scientists can use a gene-editing technique that could eliminate certain inherited diseases, leading biomedical organisations warn.

At present it is illegal to alter the genes of reproductive “germ cells” such as eggs, sperm and embryos, but the clinical benefits of modifying the human germ-line could one day outweigh the ethical objections, says a statement by two government research councils and a coalition of medical research charities.

While the US has imposed a moratorium on the use of genome editing of human embryos, the joint statement implies that the day might soon come in the UK when it is ethically justified to implant the first genetically modified embryo in a womb. The research organisations, which include the Medical Research Council and the Wellcome Trust, Britain’s biggest medical charity, said there was no reason why the gene-editing technique known as Crispr-Cas9 should not be used immediately on early IVF embryos for research purposes provided they are not implanted into the womb –...