A group of international scientists is calling for a moratorium on making inheritable changes to the human genome. Researchers are now capable of editing genes in living cells in much more precise ways, but the risks of this gene editing must be assessed, the group said in a statement.
The statement was issued from the International Summit on Human Gene Editing held in Washington, DC. The group said it would be proceeding with editing to what is called the germline would be irresponsible until the risks of such editing are better assessed and there is a consensus on the appropriateness of proposed gene changes. The idea of making permanent changes to the human genome "should be revisited on a regular basis" as research moves forward, the statement said.
The germline is the set of genes in eggs and sperm that pass the genome down to future generations. Unlike gene therapy which alters other cells and tissues in the body, changes to the human germline would be inherited by the patient's children and thus contribute permanent changes to the human gene pool. These changes could end inherited diseases or they could enhance human capabilities.
The summit was convened by the National Academy of Sciences of the United States, the Institute of Medicine, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the Royal Society of London. Similar restraints on gene editing were proposed in 1975, when gene manipulation was just beginning, by an international scientific meeting in California and were observed by the world's scientists.
"The overriding question is when, if ever, we will want to use gene editing to change human inheritance," David Baltimore, former president of the California Institute of Technology, said at the opening of the conference.
Only one experiment on the human germline has been reported. Chinese researchers altered human embryos that carried a chromosomal defect that made them unviable. But the results showed the dangers of the technique since the gene-editing technique cut the genome at many unintended sites.