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Vulnerability and the Ethics of Human Germline Genome Editing.

Markus K LabudeVicki XafisPoh-San LaiCatherine Mills
Published in: The CRISPR journal (2022)
The concept of vulnerability has played an important role in theoretical bioethics as well as in numerous authoritative guidelines on research ethics. The concept helps to identify situations in which research participants and other individuals may be at a heightened risk of experiencing harm. However, existing guidance documents on the ethics of human germline gene editing largely fail to make any reference to considerations of vulnerability. In this article, we discuss this oversight and we highlight the role that vulnerability can play in ethical debates about human heritable genome editing. Future guidance documents on germline gene editing should pay attention to considerations of vulnerability and reference these appropriately.
Keyphrases
  • genome editing
  • crispr cas
  • climate change
  • endothelial cells
  • public health
  • induced pluripotent stem cells
  • big data
  • dna repair
  • machine learning
  • dna damage
  • artificial intelligence
  • global health