International medical leaders to tighten genome editing guidelines after 'CRISPR babies'

The National Academy of Medicine is planning a new commission on the most controversial use of human genome editing: creating “CRISPR babies.” The plan comes less than two years after the NAM released a sweeping report on human genome editing. At the World Economic Forum yesterday, NAM president Dr. Victor Dzau said the birth of twins whose genes were edited as embryos has underscored the ways existing guidelines fall short. Dzau said the 2017 report and others like it weren’t clear enough on when germline editing — when the DNA of an embryo, egg, or sperm is altered in a way that makes the changes heritable — is scientifically and ethically acceptable. The Chinese Academy of Sciences, Britain’s Royal Society, and other groups have signed on to the commission.