Heritable Human Genome Editing Is Not Inevitable
By Donna Dickenson, Katie Hasson & Marcy Darnovsky,
Project Syndicate
| 03. 17. 2020
In recent years, the consensus barring genetic changes that would be passed down to a person’s every descendant has collapsed, and scientists and bioethicists now focus largely on creating a detailed roadmap for moving forward. But there's a strong case to be made that the previous consensus was correct.
The announcement by the Chinese biophysicist He Jiankui in November 2018 that he had created the world’s first gene-edited babies – an egregious ethical and legal breach that resulted in a three-year prison sentence – gave discussions about heritable human genome editing a new sense of urgency. But those discussions are fundamentally flawed. Given the stakes – for today’s societies and future generations – a course correction is urgently needed.
Some scientists, futurists, and others assert the inevitability of heritable genome editing – altering embryos or gametes in order to produce genetically engineered children who will pass the changed genes and traits to their own offspring. These proponents seem to assume that, overall, it would probably be a good thing – as long as we wait until the technology is “safe” and apply it under the right circumstances. With this in mind, they have focused largely on creating a detailed roadmap for moving forward.
The organizers of the 2018 International Summit on Human Gene Editing, held just days after He’s announcement, proclaimed that “it is time to define a rigorous...
Related Articles
Paula Amato & Shoukhrat Mitalipov
[OHSU News/Christine Torres Hicks]
On September 30th, a team of 21 scientists from Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) published a significant paper in Nature Communications, with a scientifically accurate but, to many, somewhat abstruse headline:
Induction of experimental cell division to generate cells with reduced chromosome ploidy
The lead authors were Shoukhrat Mitalipov, recently described here as “a push-the-envelope biologist,” and his long-term colleague Paula Amato. (Recall that in July the pair had co-published with...
By Pam Belluck, The New York Times | 10.17.2025
Before dawn on a March morning, Doug Whitney walked into a medical center 2,000 miles from home, about to transform from a mild-mannered, bespectacled retiree into a superhuman research subject.
First, a doctor inserted a needle into his back to...
By Elizabeth Dwoskin and Zoeann Murphy, The Washington Post | 10.01.2025
MEXICO CITY — When she walked into an IVF clinic in June, Alin Quintana knew it would be the last time she would try to conceive a child. She had prepared herself spiritually and mentally for the visit: She had traveled to a nearby...
By Rob Stein, NPR | 09.30.2025
Scientists have created human eggs containing genes from adult skin cells, a step that someday could help women who are infertile or gay couples have babies with their own genes but would also raise difficult ethical, social and legal issues...
