
Professor Jing-Bao Nie.
A University of Otago bioethicist has added his voice to a global plea for a moratorium on heritable genome editing from a group of international scientists and ethicists in the wake of the recent Chinese experiment aiming to produce HIV immune children.
In an article in the latest issue of international scientific journal Nature, Professor Jing-Bao Nie together with another 16 academics from seven countries, call for a global moratorium on all clinical uses of human germline editing to make genetically modified children.
They would like an international governance framework – in which nations voluntarily commit to not approve any use of clinical germline editing unless certain conditions are met – to be created potentially for a five-year period.
Professor Nie says the scientific scandal of the experiment that led to the world’s first genetically modified babies raises many intriguing ethical, social and transcultural / transglobal issues. His main personal concerns include what he describes as the “inadequacy” of the Chinese and international responses to the experiment.
“The Chinese authorities have conducted a preliminary investigation into the scientist’s genetic misadventure and issued a draft new regulation on the related biotechnologies. These are welcome moves. Yet, by putting blame completely on the rogue scientist individually, the institutional failings are overlooked,” Professor Nie explains.
“In the international discourse, partly due to the mentality of dichotomising China and the West, a tendency exists to characterise the scandal as just a Chinese problem. As a result, the global context of the experiment and Chinese science schemes have been far from sufficiently examined.”
The group of 17 scientists and bioethicists say it is imperative that extensive public discussions about the technical, scientific, medical, societal, ethical and moral issues must be considered before germline editing is permitted. A moratorium would provide time to establish broad societal consensus and an international framework.
“For germline editing to even be considered for a clinical application, its safety and efficacy must be sufficient – taking into account the unmet medical need, the risks and potential benefits and the existence of alternative approaches,” the opinion article states.
Although techniques have improved in recent years, germline editing is not yet safe or effective enough to justify any use in the clinic with the risk of failing to make the desired change or of introducing unintended mutations still unacceptably high, the scientists and ethicists say.
“No clinical application of germline editing should be considered unless its long-term biological consequences are sufficiently understood – both for individuals and for the human species.”
The proposed moratorium does not however, apply to germline editing for research uses or in human somatic (non-reproductive) cells to treat diseases.
Professor Nie considers it significant that current presidents of the UK Royal Society, the US National Academy of Medicine and the Director and Associate Director of the US National Institute of Health have expressed their strong support for such a proposed global moratorium in two correspondences published in the same issue of Nature. The editorial in the issue also argues that the right decision can be reached “only through engaging more communities in the debate”.
“The most challenging questions are whether international organisations and different countries will adopt a moratorium and if yes, whether it will be effective at all,” Professor Nie says.
Learn more: Otago bioethicist adds voice to global plea for moratorium on heritable genome editing
The Latest on: Heritable genome editing
via Google News
The Latest on: Heritable genome editing
- Arabian: The Genome Is Under Attackon January 24, 2021 at 11:01 pm
Genome editing promises to do a lot of good when it comes to therapy, promising to confine heritable diseases to the history books, so an outright ban on the practice would not be wise. By enacting ...
- Heritable Human Genome Editing: Rare Disease Week Discussionon January 20, 2021 at 2:26 pm
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine are private, nonprofit institutions that provide expert advice on some of the most pressing challenges facing the nation and world. Our ...
- CRISPR and the Splice to Surviveon January 17, 2021 at 4:00 pm
coli and all I’d need to rearrange its genome. The E. coli went into the ... to mention the Odin and my own rather less secure gene-editing adventures. Beyond the doors was a sort of antiseptic ...
- Human Germline Genome Modification and the Right to Scienceon January 13, 2021 at 1:17 am
that can be the foundation for regulating heritable gene editing both at the level of countries as well as globally. 3. The regulation of human germline genome modification in Canada Erika Kleiderman ...
- Editing the DNA of Human Embryos Could Protect Us From Future Pandemicson January 12, 2021 at 5:00 am
The UK Royal Society recently stated that heritable genome editing is not ready to be tried in humans safely, although it has urged that if countries do approve hGGe treatment practices ...
- From Ambitions To Markets: Richard Kitney And More Synthetic Bio Viewson January 5, 2021 at 4:00 pm
making a genetic trait of one organism heritable by its offspring all the time, not just half the time—and now possible using the CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing system. Stanford bioethicist Hank ...
- Can editing the DNA of human embryos protect us from future pandemics?on December 30, 2020 at 8:05 am
The UK Royal Society recently stated that heritable genome editing is not ready to be tried in humans safely, although it has urged that if countries do approve human germline genome editing ...
- 2020 Was a Breakout Year for Crispron December 28, 2020 at 12:00 am
The hours-long infusion made her the first American with a heritable disease to be treated ... Mitochondria join the genome-editing party Crispr can make precise cuts to the genomes of pretty ...
- Interview: Nobel chemistry laureate Jennifer Doudna on the promise and peril of the genetic editing revolutionon December 26, 2020 at 4:00 pm
And actually, this conversation we’re having today is very timely, because today the National Academies of Science in the US and in the United Kingdom announced that they were releasing a report on ...
- Consumer Q&Aon December 13, 2020 at 4:00 pm
Some of the more commonly used terms for types of modern molecular technology are “genetic engineering” and “genome editing” but ... (also referred to as “heritable”).
via Bing News