BioCentury
ARTICLE | Politics & Policy

House committee votes to reinstate human germline gene editing ban, calls for study of allowing mitochondrial replacement

June 4, 2019 9:26 PM UTC

The House Appropriations Committee Tuesday voted to reinstate a prohibition on FDA review of applications to conduct research “in which a human embryo is intentionally created or modified to include a heritable genetic modification.” Several Democrats said they reluctantly supported the ban and called for congressional committees to investigate the merits of research on allowing mitochondrial replacement therapy.

The germline editing research ban was first added to an FDA spending bill in 2016 as an amendment or “rider.” ...