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Joint statement on the ethics of heritable human genome editing

In a joint statement on the ethics of human germline interventions, the Ethics Councils of Germany, France and the United Kingdom call on governments and stakeholders around the world to put ethical considerations at the centre of any future discussion of germline interventions and the development of global governance.

Joint statement on the ethics of heritable human genome editing
Image: German Ethics Council

Recent attempts and plans to alter the genomes of future children reflect a growing interest in making genetically modified humans a reality. The moral and societal issues raised
by these developments demand a level of public ethical reflection that is not yet met by current initiatives.

The Comité Consultatif National d’Éthique pour les sciences de la vie et de la santé (French National Advisory Committee on Ethics in life sciences and health), the Deutscher Ethikrat (German Ethics Council) and the United Kingdom’s Nuffield Council on Bioethics jointly call on governments and stakeholders around the world to put ethical considerations at the core of any future discussion and of the development of global governance of heritablegenome editing.

Categories

  • Gene technology
  • Gene therapy
  • Genome
  • Genome editing
  • Publisher
    German Ethics Council
English, German