Nov 8, 2024 11:24 PM
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-03643-4
INTRO: Researchers have voiced concerns after South Africa updated its health-research ethics guidelines to include a new section on heritable (or germline) human genome editing.
Scientists say this could put the nation one step closer to accepting the controversial technique — which involves introducing genetic changes to sperm, eggs or embryos, such that the modifications will be passed down through successive generations. The research ethics guidelines were updated in May, but the news became more widely known last month.
Currently, no country explicitly allows heritable human genome editing in clinical settings. It is not clear to what extent South Africa’s scientific community was consulted on the changes.
Nature has requested comment from South Africa’s department of health, which published the revised guidelines, and from the National Health Research Ethics Council, a statutory body under the National Health Act, which drafted them. No comment was received by the time this article was published.
“The decision to amend the South African Ethics in Health Research Guidelines to facilitate research to create genetically modified children is baffling,” says Françoise Baylis, a bioethicist at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada who wrote about the change in an article in The Conversation.
“I know of no other country that explicitly permits this type of research and can’t understand why South Africa would want to be the first to do so,” adds Baylis, who is also a member of the World Health Organization’s advisory committee on developing global standards for governance and oversight of human genome editing.
There is an international consensus among researchers that the practice is not acceptable in the clinical setting. Such editing could prevent inherited diseases, such as cystic fibrosis and sickle-cell disease, but it poses significant ethical concerns and safety challenges... (MORE - details, no obtrusive ads)
INTRO: Researchers have voiced concerns after South Africa updated its health-research ethics guidelines to include a new section on heritable (or germline) human genome editing.
Scientists say this could put the nation one step closer to accepting the controversial technique — which involves introducing genetic changes to sperm, eggs or embryos, such that the modifications will be passed down through successive generations. The research ethics guidelines were updated in May, but the news became more widely known last month.
Currently, no country explicitly allows heritable human genome editing in clinical settings. It is not clear to what extent South Africa’s scientific community was consulted on the changes.
Nature has requested comment from South Africa’s department of health, which published the revised guidelines, and from the National Health Research Ethics Council, a statutory body under the National Health Act, which drafted them. No comment was received by the time this article was published.
“The decision to amend the South African Ethics in Health Research Guidelines to facilitate research to create genetically modified children is baffling,” says Françoise Baylis, a bioethicist at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada who wrote about the change in an article in The Conversation.
“I know of no other country that explicitly permits this type of research and can’t understand why South Africa would want to be the first to do so,” adds Baylis, who is also a member of the World Health Organization’s advisory committee on developing global standards for governance and oversight of human genome editing.
There is an international consensus among researchers that the practice is not acceptable in the clinical setting. Such editing could prevent inherited diseases, such as cystic fibrosis and sickle-cell disease, but it poses significant ethical concerns and safety challenges... (MORE - details, no obtrusive ads)