German ethics council expresses openness to eventual embryo editing

In a report made public yesterday, the German Ethics Council concluded that editing human DNA using CRISPR and other technologies is not out of the question. Contrary to many experts who have taken a hard line against germline editing, the government-appointed council — made up of scientists, ethicists, and legal scholars — said that altering human germlines is not, “in principle, ethically reprehensible.” The report calls for a moratorium on creating pregnancies with gene-edited IVF embryos, but also recommends that the country work toward a binding international agreement that would outline when germline editing could ever be acceptable.