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"What are the moral implications of genome editing?" is the question that has been posed by the Nuffield Council on Bioethics regarding the new CRISPR-Cas9 mediated germ-line genome editing technique, which allows targeted modification of DNA sequences at the level of the germ-line, i.e. gametes (eggs and sperm).
This is the wrong question to ask.
To be fair, the Nuffield Council is the leading independent deliberative body promoting policy recommendations in the UK on bioethical issues since 1991. The UK government has incorporated the recommendations of its reports in many decisions, including the recent report on ethics of prevention of mitochondrial DNA disorders, and its work on novel neurotechnologies has also served as model by the US Presidential Bioethical Commission for the report on Gray Matters: Integrative Approach for Neuroscience, Ethics & Society.
But I think that a change of direction would be helpful for the Nuffield Council in its early stages of work on gene editing.
Scientists have been calling for a "voluntary moratorium" to pause and reflect on the technique of...