The most important was almost identical to what had been decided at the small Napa meeting at the beginning of the year. Human germline editing should be strongly discouraged until stringent conditions were met, but the words “moratorium” and “ban” were avoided. Among the conditions the group adopted was that germline editing should not proceed until “there is broad societal consensus about the appropriateness of the proposed application.” The need for a “broad societal consensus” was one that would be invoked often in discussions of the ethics of germline editing, as if a mantra. It was a
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