Gene Editing In Embryos Is Fraught With Scientific And Ethical Issues

Health and Medicine





Photo credit:

Genetic changes to embryos will not only affect the person that embryo becomes but also all their descendants. anna gutermuth/Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND

Recent technological advances have revolutionised our ability to manipulate the genetic code, allowing us to specifically edit individual genes. Gene editing offers exciting potential for disease therapies but application of the technology in embryos also raises many ethical and scientific issues.