Gene editing companies say human germline editing ‘currently inappropriate’

Thirteen gene editing companies asserted that human germline gene editing is “currently inappropriate” in a statement released by the Alliance for Regenerative Medicine on Tuesday. The companies cite unresolved “important safety, ethical, legal, and societal issues,” and say that they are “solely focused on somatic cell approaches to therapeutic treatments and cures for disease.”

The statement is intended to convey the conviction of gene editing developers that “the ethical issues around germline gene editing are really different from the ethical issues around somatic cell gene editing,” ARM CEO Janet Lynch Lambert told BioCentury. ...