No One Should Edit The Genes Of Embryos To Make Babies, NIH Chief Says

Gene editing must never be used to create “designer babies” with enhanced abilities, the director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) told a gathering of top scientists on Tuesday.

More provocatively, he also said that science is not ready for the controversial new technology to be used to eliminate genetic diseases that are passed down from one generation to the next.

“We must be aware of the hubris that it would take for human beings to be so smart that we thought we had the ability and the ethical principles to do such a thing,” the NIH chief, Francis Collins, said. “Humility would be a very good principle to attach to any such discussion.”

Collins was addressing a prestigious committee of about two dozen legal and scientific experts gathered to discuss the ethics of gene editing — a new technology that grabbed the spotlight last year.

CRISPR/Cas9, the most famous of this suite of powerful new tools, enables scientists to locate and replace human genes with unprecedented ease and precision.

But the prospect of using the tool on egg...