These are the Countries Where it's 'Legal' to Edit Human Embryos (Hint: the US is One)
By Lauren F Friedman,
Business Insider
| 04. 23. 2015
News broke on Wednesday that a team of Chinese scientists had edited the genes of human embryos for the first time ever, confirming long-swirling rumors that such ethically dicey experiments were underway and flouting recent calls to put a stop to them.
Around the world, the laws governing what's allowed when it comes to "editing the human germ line," the technical name for what the Chinese scientists did, are a mixed bag. That means that while the technology still has a long way to go before people can actually make genetically engineered babies, in many places there are no laws preventing a scary "Gattaca scenario," where designer babies become routine — just some loose guidelines and a variable sense of ethics.
Despite researchers urging caution — stating that this work needs to be "on hold pending a broader societal discussion of the scientific and ethical issues surrounding such use," an inventor of the technology that made it possible told National Geographic — it seems that while the Chinese scientists ruffled some feathers, they did not actually break...
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