Scientific, ethical and legal issues of germline gene editing: Light and shadow in the declaration of the Spanish Bioethics Commitee

  1. Ekain Payán Ellacuria 1
  1. 1 University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU
Revista:
Ramon Llull journal of applied ethics

ISSN: 2013-8393

Año de publicación: 2021

Número: 12

Páginas: 97-118

Tipo: Artículo

DOI: 10.34810/RLJAEV1N12ID389307 DIALNET GOOGLE SCHOLAR lock_openAcceso abierto editor

Otras publicaciones en: Ramon Llull journal of applied ethics

Resumen

The applicability of the CRISPR-Cas9 tool to the cure of several flaws in human embryos has raised up the number of worldwide basic and preclinical trials. By the end of 2018, the birth of the first ge-netically edited twins in China was known, intending to prevent them from catching HIV, since one of their parents had already suffered it. This led to social alarm, as the gestation process was carried out in disre-gard of medical standards and the assessments of ethics committees. The purpose of the present paper is to establish whether the intervention could be considered therapy, prevention – when trying to prevent an expected future pathology – or whether, in contrast, it would be, as has been widely defended, a clear case of enhancement, drawing the boundaries between all of them. To this end, the Declaration of the Spanish Bioeth-ics Committee will be examined, highlighting some of their scientific, ethical and legal claims, and providing some comments that could call into question its original position.

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Fuente de los datos: Dialnet