The review on Bioethics Genome Editing considers the impact of recent advances in genome editing, which have diffused rapidly across many fields of biological research, and the range of ethical questions to which they give rise. The review was carried out by an interdisciplinary Working Group of experts in science, law, philosophy, ethics, sociology and industry including committee member and UC Berkeley Professor of Gender and Women’s Studies, Charis Thompson. In coming to its conclusions, the Working Group invited contributions from a wide range of people, including through an open call for evidence that ran from November 2015 until February 2016.

The review has identified some of the key issues and questions that may arise in relation to potential future uses of genome editing in treatments and technologies that could be applied in humans, animals, plants, and microorganisms. The ethical questions are very different, depending on the context of application. In view of this, we believe that focussing primarily on the ethical implications of the technology itself is not the best way to approach further appraisal of the ethical and social issues. Instead, we propose a second stage of work that starts by looking critically at problems or challenges that genome editing may contribute to addressing, and offer an ethical analysis of the ways of approaching them in which genome editing may play a role. See the entire report here.