No designer babies, but summit calls for cautious research

WASHINGTON (AP) — A tool to edit human genes is nowhere near ready to use for pregnancy — but altering early embryos as part of careful laboratory research should be allowed as scientists and society continue to grapple with the ethical questions surrounding this revolutionary technology, organizers of an international summit concluded Thursday.

"It would be irresponsible" to edit human sperm, eggs or early embryos in a way that leads to pregnancy, said Nobel laureate David Baltimore of the California Institute of Technology, who chaired the summit.

Tools to precisely edit genes inside living cells, especially a cheap and easy-to-use one called CRISP-Cas9, are transforming biology — and potential treatments created by them promise to do such things as cure sickle-cell anemia or fight HIV and cancer.

But depending on how it's used, it also could alter human heredity — maybe create "designer babies" — raising ethical questions that triggered three days of debate by scientists, policymakers and ethicists from 20 countries. This so-called germline editing — manipulating sperm, eggs or early embryos — wouldn't affect just one...