Articles and Commentary

As the debate about heritable genome editing unfolds, divergent perspectives are coming more clearly into view. Those who see it as offering little or no benefit while posing unacceptable societal risks support either the currently prevailing policies that ban it...

Last fall, when a Chinese scientist announced that he had created genetically modified twin babies, the world was stunned and outraged. In the U.S., we were able to draw some modicum of reassurance from a policy that has served as...

To the Editor — The claim last November by He Jiankui to have engineered the first CRISPR-edited babies has ignited voluble condemnation from scientists worldwide. What, then, made this rogue researcher think that his ‘achievement’ would be welcomed? One possible...

Despite the appearance of agreement, scientists are not of the same mind about the ethics and governance of human germline editing. A careful review of public comments and published commentaries in top-tier science journals reveals marked differences in perspective. These...

The fierce global controversy over whether to alter the genes of future children and generations just got fiercer. On the eve of a high-profile scientific meeting in Hong Kong on human gene editing, the Chinese researcher and biotech entrepreneur He...

A wave of controversy about reproductive gene editing gathered force in response to reports in 2015 of the first CRISPR experiments on human embryos. That news provoked two kinds of reactions: on the one hand, hyperbolic claims about "editing humanity"...

The Nuffield Council on Bioethics has taken what it clearly regards as a brave new step: it has openly endorsed the use of genome editing to engineer the traits of future children and generations. The council’s report, Genome editing...