Response to Levrier re: Human Germline and Heritable Genome Editing: The Global Policy Landscape

In response to: https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/crispr.2021.29121.gle

Levrier apparently misunderstands the nature of our project published in The CRISPR Journal in October 2020.¹ We identified and reviewed policy documents relevant to human germline and heritable genome editing research in 96 countries. We did not speculate about arguments that might lead legislatures or courts to revise existing policies or adjudicate prospective cases, nor did we attempt to examine each policy in its national or international context. Rather, based on close and careful readings of the identified texts, we categorized countries according to the current permissibility or impermissibility of germline and heritable genome editing. Then, we counted.

We welcome corrections and additions to the data we have compiled, which we plan to keep updated at https://tinyurl.com/HumanGenomeEditingPolicies. Unfortunately, Levrier does not provide appropriate documentation for his challenge to our categorizations regarding human germline and heritable genome editing research in three countries (France, Mexico, and Japan). Instead, he points to a report, unspecified “debates” in the French parliament, and comments on social media. We sometimes used such sources to identify relevant policy documents, but did...