Over the past few days, my twitter account has been filled with calls for a moratorium on the genetic editing of the human germ line, that is, any cell that will eventually give rise to either a sperm or egg.
Two and a half years ago, the breakthrough development of a new technology termed CRISPR/Cas9 genomic editing was reported in the high profile journal Science; it is widely assumed that development of this technology will be awarded a Nobel prize. It appears that in the two and a half intervening years, work on human embryos has already been undertaken.
From an aritcle published March 5th, italics mine
Several people interviewed by MIT Technology Review said that such experiments [human germ line editing] had already been carried out in China and that results describing edited embryos were pending publication.Engineering the Perfect Baby, MIT Technology Review
If true, it means we have very quietly entered a new, ethically uncertain, era of human genetics. If you want to learn about the biotechnology, or discuss the ethics, read on.
