Let’s Talk About the Ethics of Germline Modification
By Gregor Wolbring, Impact Ethics | 05. 27. 2015
Untitled Document
Human germline genetic modification, which involves making genetic changes that will be passed on to future generations, is once again in the news.
Mid-March 2015, in anticipation of a publication about the use of CRISPR/Cas9 to edit the genome of human embryos, the journal Nature published two articles. There was a brief commentary “Don’t edit the human germ line” calling for a voluntary moratorium on germline modification, and a news item “Scientists sound alarm over DNA editing of human embryos” explaining that while some scientists want to ban germline alterations, others want the work to proceed. The anticipated study confirming the use of gene-editing techniques to modify the human germline was published online in April 2015. Various media outlets reported on this research and the Science Media Centre published the views of various “experts” on this development – some saying it should be allowed, others saying it should not be allowed.
Various commentators, including the authors of “Don’t edit the human germ line” have called for an open public discussion. I find this commendable!...
Related Articles
By Brian Love, Reuters | 09.12.2017
The right of lesbian couples and single women to have access to assisted reproduction was “a matter of social justice” and will likely be legislated next year, a French government minister has said.
The move would mark a significant extension...
By Antonio Regalado, MIT Tech Review | 09.19.2017
Stem cells can be coaxed to self-assemble into structures resembling human embryos.
Yue Shao had never seen anything quite like it.
Two years ago, Shao, a mechanical engineer with a flair for biology, was working with embryonic stem cells, the...
By Rob Stein, NPR [cites CGS' Marcy Darnovsky] | 09.20.2017
For the first time, scientists have edited the DNA in human embryos to make a fundamental discovery about the earliest days of human development.
By modifying a key gene in very early-stage embryos, the researchers demonstrated that a gene plays...
By Gina Moranto, Guest Contributor | 09.18.2017
Property in the Body: Feminist Perspectives, Second Edition, by Donna Dickenson, 202 pp.. Cambridge Bioethics and Law. Cambridge University Press, 2017.
Any new work from the eminent British scholar Donna Dickenson promises to bring important insights. This second edition of her important 2007 volume on the commodification of women’s bodies, Property in the Body, is no exception.
Ten years after the book’s initial publication, Dickenson sees that scholars and activists have scored some victories against capital’s incursions on...
