Following the announcement last month by Chinese scientists that they successfully altered human embryos DNA in a feat that could result in live babies with customized characteristics – had they actually used live human DNA to perform the experiment; but the news attracted general outcries that has necessitated top scientists to consider holding a meeting where guidelines for the CRISPR-Cas9 will be drawn up.
US scientists are now set to draw up a set of guidelines that border on the ethics of human genetic editing and these might impact on social and cultural issues.
Under the human DNA editing technology, scientists can edit genes to create human babies with targeted features that could be passed on from one generation to the other.
But the scientific community understands the risk in this project, knowing that such created humans could possess traits and characteristics that could endanger future generations, even though some scientists believe the technology would be wonderful for eliminating undesirable elements or genetic diseases before any human is born.
Chartered by Congress in 1863, the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) in partnership with the Institute of Medicine will be holding an international conference where scientists will explore the ethical, scientific, social, and political implication of gene editing therapies.
NAS President Ralph Cicerone and IOM President Victor Dzau said in a joint statement that the purpose of the summit is to provide leaders with the knowledge and tools to deal with emerging issues that will result from genetic editing research as they relate to human cloning.
They want to prepare scientists for the implications of gene editing therapies and how it will impact on human living in time to come.
Such meeting is expected to bear great fruit because the 1975 Asilomar Conference convened by NAS in gene-splicing led to the establishment of pharmaceutical companies like Genentech among others – leading to revolutions in drug production.