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Almost six months ago exactly, a group of scientists published an editorial in Nature entitled “Don’t edit the human germ line” in response to the rapid development and rising popularity of an accurate and easy-to-use gene-editing technique called CRISPR-Cas9. Their article was a strongly-worded entreaty for the scientific community to cease any and all gene-editing research in human reproductive cells, or the germline. The unknown risks of germline editing on future generations gravely outweigh the possible benefits, argued the authors.
Their words turned out to be like a gate in front of a growing surge of water — quickly the rising tide became too much to contain. Just a week after the Nature editorial was published, another group of scientists, including one of the inventors of CRISPR-Cas9, published a letter in Science calling for a “prudent path forward” instead of a moratorium. The authors of the Science article argued that germline engineering offered real promises — such as that of curing genetic diseases — that were worth exploring.
A month later, researchers in China announced that they...
