Science says to legalize transgenic human embryos.
Scientific controversy: they want to legalize transgenic human embryos.
A group of British biomedical organizations including the Medical Research Council and the Wellcome Trust (the largest philanthropic group in the UK) has issued a joint statement calling for the legalization of genetically modifying human embryos. The aim is the use of a technique of genetic edition (known as CRISPR-Cas9) that could eliminate certain inherited diseases.
Currently it is not legal altered germ cell genes as eggs, sperm and embryos for ethical reasons, although their potential clinical benefits could reverse this situation, starting a path that could lead to the introduction of the first genetically modified embryo in a womb.
The undersigned organizations argue that it is possible to see that the CRISPR-Cas9 technique is safe enough for use in human embryos and stem cells; in this way it would ensure that inherited diseases are not transmitted from generation to generation.
"We believe that genome editing techniques can have a significant potential for clinical application in the future, and would be open to support the development of new therapeutic approaches if enough research evidence to justify moving," says the joint statement. The CRISPR-Cas9 is a simple and effective technique to edit genomes eliminating germline mutations and hereditary defects that are behind 6,000 single-gene diseases; biomedical organizations have put on the agenda the debate on the relevance and need for its use, which would open unexpected paths in the history of medicine.
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