Getting serious about the challenge of regulating germline gene therapy.

The announcement of He Jiankui's germline editing of human embryos has been followed by a torrent of almost universal criticism of the claim on scientific and ethical grounds. That criticism is warranted. There is little room for anything other than vociferous condemnation of He's announce...

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Main Author: Arthur Caplan
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2019-04-01
Series:PLoS Biology
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000223
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spelling doaj-8f9810dd739548d2bdd9c03392b248a92021-07-02T21:22:08ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS Biology1544-91731545-78852019-04-01174e300022310.1371/journal.pbio.3000223Getting serious about the challenge of regulating germline gene therapy.Arthur CaplanThe announcement of He Jiankui's germline editing of human embryos has been followed by a torrent of almost universal criticism of the claim on scientific and ethical grounds. That criticism is warranted. There is little room for anything other than vociferous condemnation of He's announcement. Presenting the results of groundbreaking work by press conference and YouTube is not science. The issue now is not whether the work supporting the claims reported from China was done in an ethical manner. It was not. What is required to move forward is a justification for doing germline editing in humans. Many think there is none, and prohibitions abound. If such work is justifiable, a serious, rigorous framework must be imposed that insures that such research is done following the highest ethical standards that both protect human subjects and insure public trust and support.https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000223
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Arthur Caplan
spellingShingle Arthur Caplan
Getting serious about the challenge of regulating germline gene therapy.
PLoS Biology
author_facet Arthur Caplan
author_sort Arthur Caplan
title Getting serious about the challenge of regulating germline gene therapy.
title_short Getting serious about the challenge of regulating germline gene therapy.
title_full Getting serious about the challenge of regulating germline gene therapy.
title_fullStr Getting serious about the challenge of regulating germline gene therapy.
title_full_unstemmed Getting serious about the challenge of regulating germline gene therapy.
title_sort getting serious about the challenge of regulating germline gene therapy.
publisher Public Library of Science (PLoS)
series PLoS Biology
issn 1544-9173
1545-7885
publishDate 2019-04-01
description The announcement of He Jiankui's germline editing of human embryos has been followed by a torrent of almost universal criticism of the claim on scientific and ethical grounds. That criticism is warranted. There is little room for anything other than vociferous condemnation of He's announcement. Presenting the results of groundbreaking work by press conference and YouTube is not science. The issue now is not whether the work supporting the claims reported from China was done in an ethical manner. It was not. What is required to move forward is a justification for doing germline editing in humans. Many think there is none, and prohibitions abound. If such work is justifiable, a serious, rigorous framework must be imposed that insures that such research is done following the highest ethical standards that both protect human subjects and insure public trust and support.
url https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000223
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