Reproductive Embryo Editing: Attending to Justice
By Inmaculada De Melo-Martín,
The Hastings Center Report
| 08. 22. 2022
Advances in genome editing technologies allow scientists to add, remove, or alter genetic material at particular locations in the human genome. Genome editing of somatic cells offers great promise in the prevention and treatment of various human diseases. But these technologies could also be used to modify gametes and embryos. Some commentators defend gene editing for reproductive purposes on the ground that it would allow people who are at risk of transmitting genetic diseases to their offspring to have healthy and genetically related children.
Using gene editing in this way would require further research. The technology still presents problems involving off-target effects and reliability. Researchers must improve delivery to desired tissues and control of immunogenic reactions. Yet I argue here that, if we accept certain background claims about justice, accepting the goal of helping people have healthy and genetically related children should commit one to rejecting the investment of social resources into further development of reproductive embryo editing.
Considerations of justice are relevant to questions regarding the development of reproductive embryo editing for several reasons. First, decisions about research-funding priorities involve...
Related Articles
By Emily Mullin, Wired | 11.14.2023
In a small initial test in people, researchers have shown that a single infusion of a novel gene-editing treatment can reduce cholesterol, the fatty substance that clogs and hardens arteries over time.
The gene-editing treatment aims to permanently lower cholesterol...
By Carissa Wong, Nature | 11.16.2023
In a world first, the UK medicines regulator has approved a therapy that uses the CRISPR–Cas9 gene-editing tool as a treatment. The decision marks another high point for a biotechnology that has been lauded as revolutionary in the decade since...
By Emily Mullin, Wired | 11.16.2023
The first medical treatment that uses Crispr gene editing was authorized Thursday by the United Kingdom.
The one-time therapy, which will be sold under the brand name Casgevy, is for patients with sickle cell disease and a related blood disorder...
By Jocelyn Kaiser, Science | 11.12.2023
A technique for precisely rewriting the genetic code directly in the body has slashed “bad” cholesterol levels—possibly for life—in three people prone to dangerously high levels of the artery-clogging fat. The feat relied on a blood infusion of a so-called...
