A Moratorium on Heritable Human Genome Editing: Illusory or Real?
D. Joy Riley, M.D., M.A. Executive Director
In March, 2019, Nature published a commentary penned by Eric Lander, Françoise Baylis, Feng Zhang, Emmanuelle Charpentier, and Paul Berg, and signed by 13 other notables. The name of the commentary is “Adopt a moratorium on heritable genome editing.” This document requires analysis.
First, some definitions are needed. A moratorium is defined as a “suspension of activity,” or “an authorized period of delay or waiting.” Heritable means “capable of being passed from one generation to the next.” Additionally, clinical can refer to a “scientifically detached” attitude or “the observation and treatment of patients directly.” Each of ...read more
Shift and Puzzle: What do an ape and a donkey have to do with bioethics?
D. Joy Riley, M.D., M.A. Executive Director
In C. S. Lewis’ The Last Battle, Shift is a shrewd, crafty ape, and his neighbor, Puzzle, is a meek, somewhat simple donkey. It has been a long time since Aslan, the all-powerful lion, has been seen in Narnia. Therefore, when Shift spies an old lion skin, he decides to have Puzzle dress up in it and pretend to be Aslan. Shift constantly insists that Puzzle do all the heavy-lifting involved in any of their escapades, but in such a way that Puzzle thinks he is getting the ...read more
What Say You?
Update: See the bottom of this post for the National Institutes of Health’s response to our letter.
An Open Letter to Dr. Francis S. Collins, Director of the National Institutes of HealthD. Joy Riley, M.D., M.A. Executive Director
Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D. Director National Institutes of Health 9000 Rockville Pike Bethesda, Maryland 20892 [email protected]
17 December 2018
Dear Dr. Collins:
The Tennessee Center for Bioethics & Culture lauds the position of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as evidenced by your concluding statement of 28 November 2018: “NIH does not support the use of gene-editing technologies in human embryos.” As embryonic humans represent the most vulnerable amongst our species, the ...read more
Crossing a Bright Red Line: Human Embryo Editing
D. Joy Riley, M.D., M.A. Executive Director
On Monday of this week, He Jiankui of Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen, China, shocked the scientific world prior to the beginning of a conference on gene editing. Dr. He announced a first: that he had edited the genes of embryos for seven couples undergoing fertility treatments, and that one pregnancy has resulted to date. It should be noted that there is no corroboration of this claim currently: it is an announcement; no scientific paper has been published about it.
Some of the specific claims, published in The Guardian, are as follows:
All of ...read moreThe ACP Releases a Position Paper on Physician-Assisted Suicide
D. Joy Riley, M.D., M.A. Executive Director
On 19 September 2017, the Ethics, Professionalism and Human Rights Committee of the American College of Physicians released their position paper on physician-assisted suicide (P-AS). A brief synopsis of it follows…
Re: Ethics and the Legalization of Physician-Assisted Suicide: An American College of Physicians Position PaperThe statement released last week builds on previous work:
1997 report by the Institute of Medicine (IOM), Approaching Death: Improving Care at the End of Life, which cited “inadequate end-of-life care” in the U.S. 2001 statement by the American College of Physicians, in which the ACP did not support the legalization of P-AS. ...read moreIt Has Arrived: Gene Editing Recommendations Published
D. Joy Riley, M.D., M.A. Executive Director
The committee appointed to advise our government regarding the editing of genes, including editing the genes of the human embryo, has published a draft report (see the title page screen shot above). We at The Tennessee Center for Bioethics & Culture are studying the document’s 261 pages, and have a few caveats to share with our readers. Germline gene editing was given cautious approval by the committee:
Heritable germline genome editing trials must be approached with caution, but caution does not mean they must be prohibited. (p. 102)
and
If the technical challenges are ...read more
What’s Happening with Physician-Assisted Suicide?
Mrs. Jane Patton is a Vanderbilt University graduate, a nurse, and worked most recently in clinical research. Her interest in bioethics began in college with thinking through Roe v. Wade and the inherent value of human life. She has done further work in bioethics, and now volunteers with The Tennessee CBC. Below, Jane Patton addresses recent developments in physician-assisted suicide.
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Here we are in 2017, loaded with the benefits of technological innovation. In healthcare the movement is at warp speed such that we can be like frogs in the proverbial frying pan, not taking to heart the implications of such rapid and ...read more
CRISPR — Who’s in Charge? (Part IV)
D. Joy Riley, M.D., M.A. Executive Director
This is part IV of our report. View part I, part II, or part III.
The ability to edit genes using CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats) has been in the news for more than a year. A committee has been appointed to advise our government regarding the editing of genes, particularly editing the genes of the human embryo.
Who are the members of that committee? What are their views? The Tennessee Center for Bioethics & Culture has been working to gather information for you, our readers.
Here is a brief look at some of the writings and organizational ...read more
CRISPR — Who’s in Charge? (Part III)
D. Joy Riley, M.D., M.A. Executive Director
This is part III of our report. View part I, part II, or part IV.
The ability to edit genes using CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats) has been in the news for more than a year. A committee has been appointed to advise our government regarding the editing of genes, particularly editing the genes of the human embryo.
Who are the members of that committee? What are their views? The Tennessee Center for Bioethics & Culture has been working to gather information for you, our readers.
Here is a brief look at some of the writings and organizational ...read more
