UNESCO bioethics panel calls for moratorium on human genome editing

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A UNESCO panel of scientists, philosophers, lawyers and government ministers has called for a halt to genetic “editing” of the human germline, warning of the danger of tampering with hereditary traits that could lead to eugenics.

UNESCO’s International Bioethics Committee (IBC) said gene therapy could be “a watershed in the history of medicine” and genome editing “is unquestionably one of the most promising undertakings of science for the sake of all humankind.”

But the experts said genetic editing required “particular precautions and raises serious concerns, especially if the editing of the human genome should be applied to the germline and therefore introduce hereditary modifications, which could be transmitted to future generations”.

The IBC, meeting in Paris, therefore called for a moratorium on this specific procedure.

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“Interventions on the human genome should be admitted only for preventive, diagnostic or therapeutic reasons and without enacting modifications for descendants,” the panel said.

Unless such restrictions were applied, it could “jeopardize the inherent and therefore equal dignity of all human beings and renew eugenics,” the IBC said.

Read full, original post: UNESCO experts call for ban on genetic ‘editing’