Global Ban on Heritable Human Genome Editing Announced by Leading Scientists

Image Credits: National Acamedy of Medicine

Action

The need to take action and put control on HHGE was first addressed in 2019. When a Chinese researcher, He Jiankui, Ph.D., discovered that twin girls were born from embryos with the ‘He gene’ edited using CRISPR. The group of gene editing leaders was therefore notified of the ban on heritable human genome editing (HHGE) for 10 years. HHGE gets support from the expanded idea of CRISPR on human embryos, which was discovered by one of the researchers and turned down to be an illegal matter.

Announcement

Currently, the announcement of the ban was made on 21st May under the publication in Cytotherapy, a journal of the International Society for Cell and Gene Therapy. Additionally, starting from 26th March, the ban will first address the important factors to be segregated and suspend figures in gene editing. The meeting was discussed in the presence of the president of ISCT and CEO of Kiji Therapeutics, Miguel Forte; CEO of Arbor Biotechnologies, Devyn Smith; Phd, a distinguished professor at the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine, Paula Cannon; CEO of the Alliance for Regenerative Medicine, Tim Hunt; ceo of the American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy, David Barrett, and ISCT CEO, Queenie Jang.

Calculated Risk

The modernized world is expanding and accelerating in various sectors, but the demand for ‘fancy babies’ is a risk to health and society. The strict law should be enforced to prohibit HHGE. The compulsion on the patent to HHGE-based technology should also be initiated, and a signed agreement of funding from researchers who adopt HHGE during these 10 years.

It is a concern and a possibility of ‘eugenics’ that will be possible for privileged individuals. The HHGE is an edit to the human germ line, which is a reproductive cell, such as eggs and sperm. The change in the genome of the cells, where edits can be transferred to future generations. In comparison to other body cells, this edit is different as it can’t be inherited.