Moral and Ethical Issues in Human Genome Editing

Recent reports of a Chinese scientist who claims to have applied genome editing techniques to human embryos, which were subsequently implanted and resulted in the birth of live babies, means that the question of whether—and how—these techniques should be used in humans demands an urgent answer. This in-depth report takes a wider perspective on the issue, which concerns all people as individuals and collectively as a society. It challenges the alleged achievement in China as being profoundly unethical, reflecting a disregard for the ethical and professional concerns of the international scientific community.