Congress is about to renew its ban on creating CRISPR babies in the US
In an effort to get critical parts of the US government funded, the House of Representatives is going to vote today on a bill, H.R. 265, that would pay for health inspectors, food stamps, and drug approvals, according to Politico.
It would also would renew the prohibition on genetically modified human beings in the US.
Baby ban: Since 2015, the US has adopted language in funding bills that prohibits the Food and Drug Administration from considering any application to create IVF children from embryos that have been genetically modified. But it has to be renewed every year.
What’s prohibited: The ban covers gene-edited babies like those allegedly born recently in China, who had a gene removed to make them resistant to HIV. It also blocks a technique, known as “three-parent babies,” that is being used to try and prevent mitochondrial disease.
The rule is one reason such efforts are occuring first in other countries, including China and Ukraine, not in the US.
Strongly opposed: The FDA commissioner, Scott Gottlieb, has left no doubt he’s deeply opposed to softening the CRISPR baby rule. In November he tweeted:
Certain uses of science should be judged intolerable, and cause scientists to be cast out. The use of CRISPR to edit human embryos or germ line cells should fall into that bucket. Anything less puts the science and the entire scientific enterprise at risk.
Lacks subtlety: By blocking any-and-all DNA changes to an embryo, I. Glenn Cohen, a professor at Harvard Law School, says American legislation has taken a "meat axe" approach when what's needed is a "scalpel" to separate good uses of technology from bad. Congress is again missing a chance “to craft a better, more subtle policy” that could allow real public debate on new reproductive technologies, Cohen says.
Deep Dive
Biotechnology
Sam Altman invested $180 million into a company trying to delay death
Can anti-aging breakthroughs add 10 healthy years to the human life span? The CEO of OpenAI is paying to find out.
An ALS patient set a record for communicating via a brain implant: 62 words per minute
Brain interfaces could let paralyzed people speak at almost normal speeds.
Forget designer babies. Here’s how CRISPR is really changing lives
The gene-editing tool is being tested in people, and the first treatment could be approved this year.
Neuroscientists listened in on people’s brains for a week. They found order and chaos.
The study shows that our brains exist between chaos and stability—a finding that could be used to help tweak them either way.
Stay connected
Get the latest updates from
MIT Technology Review
Discover special offers, top stories, upcoming events, and more.