As you probably know, Alta Charo is one of the most influential (and nice) bioethicists on the international scene. In this video, she explains why gene therapies are “a medical miracle and an economic disaster,” before broadening the focus to more general issues such as the tensions between individual, professional, and collective ethics.
CRISPRpedia is an online encyclopedia on CRISPR developed by the Innovative Genomics Institute. A new chapter, devoted entirely to the bioethics of gene editing, has recently been added to existing sections on CRISPR in nature, CRISPR technology, applications in medicine, and applications in agriculture. The ability to edit the genomes of people, embryos, plants and animals raises both old and new questions. How do we decide what uses are legitimate and desirable? Who gets to make these decisions? How can we ensure safety and fair access?
Answers to these and other pressing questions have been compiled by UC Berkeley bioethicist Jodi Halpern, in collaboration with communications strategist Hope Henderson. Check it out!
The ethics of using CRISPR to improve the odds of savior siblings. This is when a couple tries to have another baby who is both healthy and a suitable donor “match” for their older kid (“Could editing the DNA of embryos with CRISPR help save people who are already alive?“, STAT News, Sept. 16).
Carl Zimmer explaining a CRISPR experiment carried out to understand why many cancer drugs fail (“Why Aren’t Cancer Drugs Better? The Targets Might Be Wrong”, New York Times, Sept. 11; see also the paper in Science Translational Medicine)
CRISPeR FRENZY 