The Promise and Peril of Gene Editing

The possibility of increasingly powerful and precise editing of germ cells raises more complicated moral questions of several different sorts. Why, apart from a general desire to expand the frontiers of our knowledge, might anyone want to do it? One reason is that heritable genome editing could, as the report puts it, “be the only or most acceptable option for prospective parents who wish to have a genetically related child while minimizing the risk of transmitting a serious disease or disability.” There are, of course, other ways to try to reach the same end, though I hardly wish to recommend most of them. We could use prenatal genetic diagnosis (PGD) of a fetus in utero and selectively abort any fetuses with genetic disease. Or we could use PGD of embryos in the laboratory, selecting only those embryos free of genetic disease for implantation through IVF. Still other alternatives exist. Prospective parents might use donated gametes; they might adopt children; or they might decide, given the risk that they may transmit genetic disease, not to have children. “These options, however,” the report notes, “do not allow both parents to have a genetic connection to their children, which is of great importance to many people.”