{"id":584,"date":"2016-01-28T00:58:00","date_gmt":"2016-01-28T00:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/genotopia.peachpuff-wolverine-566518.hostingersite.com\/?p=584"},"modified":"2016-01-28T18:49:44","modified_gmt":"2016-01-28T18:49:44","slug":"assessing-the-ethics-of-crispr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/genotopia\/584\/assessing-the-ethics-of-crispr\/","title":{"rendered":"Assessing the ethics of CRISPR"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Nuffield_Council_on_Bioethics\" target=\"_blank\">Nuffield Council on Bioethics<\/a> has issued an <a href=\"http:\/\/nuffieldbioethics.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/NCOB_GenomeEditing-CallForEvidence1.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">open call for evidence<\/a> to inform its examination of ethical issues arising in relation to genome editing. &#8220;Submission of evidence&#8221; is defined broadly, and includes opinions, reflections, and suggestions. No flames or trolls though, obviously.<\/p>\n<p>The deadline to respond is <span class=\"aBn\"><span class=\"aQJ\">Monday, 2\/1<\/span><\/span>, it&#8217;s recommended that it&#8217;s roughly 2000 words if submitted in writing, and it needs to be accompanied by this form: <a href=\"http:\/\/nuffieldbioethics.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/NCOB_GenomeEditing_response-form.docx\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/nuffieldbioethics.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/NCOB_GenomeEditing_response-form.docx<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The Council has posed a number of questions pertaining to human biomedical applications. The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.geneticsandsociety.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">Center for Genetics and Society<\/a> is composing a response and has shared with me this distilled guide to the Council&#8217;s questions<b>.<\/b> If any of you are inclined to make your voice heard on one of the most\u00a0prominent biotechnical issues today, I encourage you\u00a0to use this guide in drafting your own submission.<\/p>\n<p><strong>General Questions:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Information<\/strong>: references, especially recent or unpublished information &amp; current or planned research or applications; other sources of information that we should consult?<\/li>\n<li><strong>Opinion<\/strong>: What are the rates and direction of travel, likely applications and timescales? What is on the scientific horizon and what is (currently) science fiction?<\/li>\n<li><strong>Insight<\/strong>:\n<ul>\n<li>What are the relevant perspectives and the issues they foreground?<\/li>\n<li>Are any perspectives unfairly marginalised?<\/li>\n<li>How are different actions and outcomes valued, and on what basis?<\/li>\n<li>Using what frames of reference and systems of values might we understand and respond to genome editing?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Evaluation<\/strong>:\n<ul>\n<li>What are the potential benefits and to whom do those benefits accrue?<\/li>\n<li>What are the potential risks and adverse effects, and how are those risks and effects likely to be distributed?<\/li>\n<li>How are we to identify and evaluate the scale and significance of those benefits and risks in relation to each other?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Specific Questions:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>CRISPR &amp; the Genome: the BioTechnological Continuum<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Is CRISPR transformative or disruptive of the field of genetic engineering? Is it continuous? Should it be treated separately? What is its distinctive significance?<\/li>\n<li>Is the Human Genome categorically different or special in ways that make intervening into it different from other ways of manipulating nature (e.g. selective breeding of plants, animals)?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Duties Owed &amp; Rights<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>What obligations do scientists developing genome editing technologies owe to society?<\/li>\n<li>What freedoms does\/should society owe\/allow to scientists?<\/li>\n<li>What obligations do governments owe to society to ensure \u201csafe\u201d science or shape R+D?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Morality<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>What conventional moral principles does genome editing challenge?<\/li>\n<li>What moral or legal frameworks are necessary or desirable to ensure adherence to moral principles?<\/li>\n<li>What are the issues of greatest moral concern raised by genome editing?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Justice &amp; Access<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>What is the proper context in which to evaluate the pursuit of high tech strategies and high ambition clinical objectives in relation to possible alternatives and opportunity costs?<\/li>\n<li>Are the benefits and costs of treatment likely to be distributed equitably? How would genome editing differentially affect vulnerable or marginalised groups?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Evaluation Frameworks<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Biomedical Apps at Issue: Germline Intervention, Gene Therapy &amp; Xenotransplantation<\/li>\n<li>In translating research into treatment, does genome editing raise any special considerations (such as: assessment, risk management, who should assess safety and accessibility)?<\/li>\n<li>In setting policy for research and applications, who should lead and who should be involved? Different than other experimental or reproductive biomedicines?<\/li>\n<li>What are the significant decisions that need to be taken before therapeutic use of (somatic or germline) genome editing may be contemplated and who should have the responsibility for those decisions?<\/li>\n<li>Who is framing the global debate and what is the importance attached to global consensus?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Nuffield Council on Bioethics has issued an open call for evidence to inform its examination of ethical issues arising in relation to genome editing. &#8220;Submission of evidence&#8221; is defined broadly, and includes opinions, reflections, and suggestions. No flames or trolls though, obviously. The deadline to respond is Monday, 2\/1, it&#8217;s recommended that it&#8217;s roughly &#8230; <a title=\"Assessing the ethics of CRISPR\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/genotopia\/584\/assessing-the-ethics-of-crispr\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Assessing the ethics of CRISPR\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[414,415,411],"class_list":["post-584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bioethics","tag-citizen-science","tag-crispr"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.3 (Yoast SEO v27.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Assessing the ethics of CRISPR - Genotopia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/genotopia\/584\/assessing-the-ethics-of-crispr\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Assessing the ethics of CRISPR\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Nuffield Council on Bioethics has issued an open call for evidence to inform its examination of ethical issues arising in relation to genome editing. &#8220;Submission of evidence&#8221; is defined broadly, and includes opinions, reflections, and suggestions. No flames or trolls though, obviously. The deadline to respond is Monday, 2\/1, it&#8217;s recommended that it&#8217;s roughly ... Read more\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/genotopia\/584\/assessing-the-ethics-of-crispr\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Genotopia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-01-28T00:58:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-01-28T18:49:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Nathaniel Comfort\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Nathaniel Comfort\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scienceblog.com\\\/genotopia\\\/584\\\/assessing-the-ethics-of-crispr\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scienceblog.com\\\/genotopia\\\/584\\\/assessing-the-ethics-of-crispr\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Nathaniel Comfort\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scienceblog.com\\\/genotopia\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/1678c350e13f229dfc3ce10d37d5ef41\"},\"headline\":\"Assessing the ethics of CRISPR\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-01-28T00:58:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-01-28T18:49:44+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scienceblog.com\\\/genotopia\\\/584\\\/assessing-the-ethics-of-crispr\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":595,\"commentCount\":3,\"keywords\":[\"bioethics\",\"citizen science\",\"CRISPR\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/scienceblog.com\\\/genotopia\\\/584\\\/assessing-the-ethics-of-crispr\\\/#respond\"]}],\"copyrightYear\":\"2016\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scienceblog.com\\\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scienceblog.com\\\/genotopia\\\/584\\\/assessing-the-ethics-of-crispr\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scienceblog.com\\\/genotopia\\\/584\\\/assessing-the-ethics-of-crispr\\\/\",\"name\":\"Assessing the ethics of CRISPR - Genotopia\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scienceblog.com\\\/genotopia\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-01-28T00:58:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-01-28T18:49:44+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scienceblog.com\\\/genotopia\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/1678c350e13f229dfc3ce10d37d5ef41\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scienceblog.com\\\/genotopia\\\/584\\\/assessing-the-ethics-of-crispr\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/scienceblog.com\\\/genotopia\\\/584\\\/assessing-the-ethics-of-crispr\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scienceblog.com\\\/genotopia\\\/584\\\/assessing-the-ethics-of-crispr\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scienceblog.com\\\/genotopia\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Assessing the ethics of CRISPR\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scienceblog.com\\\/genotopia\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scienceblog.com\\\/genotopia\\\/\",\"name\":\"Genotopia\",\"description\":\"Here Lies Truth\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scienceblog.com\\\/genotopia\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scienceblog.com\\\/genotopia\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/1678c350e13f229dfc3ce10d37d5ef41\",\"name\":\"Nathaniel Comfort\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/92625f3c761b7e3f723c76a73bc4328259839fbe8530a221b68040b9b4483a99?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/92625f3c761b7e3f723c76a73bc4328259839fbe8530a221b68040b9b4483a99?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/92625f3c761b7e3f723c76a73bc4328259839fbe8530a221b68040b9b4483a99?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Nathaniel Comfort\"},\"description\":\"Nathaniel Comfort is a professor in the Department of the History of Medicine at The Johns Hopkins University. From 1997 to 2002, he was on the history faculty at The George Washington University, where he also served as Deputy Director of the Center for History of Recent Science. The Center\u2019s director and founder was Horace Freeland Judson (The Eighth Day of Creation), who, along with John McPhee and Monty Python, Comfort considers among his biggest writing influences. Comfort\u2019s books include The Science of Human Perfection: How Genes Became the Heart of American Medicine (Yale, 2012), The Tangled Field: Barbara McClintock\u2019s Search for the Patterns of Genetic Control (Harvard, 2001), and the edited volume, The Panda\u2019s Black Box: Opening Up the Intelligent Design Debate (Johns Hopkins, 2007). In addition to scholarly articles, he has written for Natural History, the New York Times Book Review, National Public Radio, Nature, Science, New Scientist, The Believer, and other publications. Should he expire tomorrow, he would be survived, in decreasing size order, by a son, a wife, a daughter, a dog, a cat, another cat, and still another cat.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/genotopia.peachpuff-wolverine-566518.hostingersite.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scienceblog.com\\\/genotopia\\\/author\\\/genotopia\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Assessing the ethics of CRISPR - Genotopia","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/genotopia\/584\/assessing-the-ethics-of-crispr\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Assessing the ethics of CRISPR","og_description":"The Nuffield Council on Bioethics has issued an open call for evidence to inform its examination of ethical issues arising in relation to genome editing. &#8220;Submission of evidence&#8221; is defined broadly, and includes opinions, reflections, and suggestions. 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From 1997 to 2002, he was on the history faculty at The George Washington University, where he also served as Deputy Director of the Center for History of Recent Science. The Center\u2019s director and founder was Horace Freeland Judson (The Eighth Day of Creation), who, along with John McPhee and Monty Python, Comfort considers among his biggest writing influences. Comfort\u2019s books include The Science of Human Perfection: How Genes Became the Heart of American Medicine (Yale, 2012), The Tangled Field: Barbara McClintock\u2019s Search for the Patterns of Genetic Control (Harvard, 2001), and the edited volume, The Panda\u2019s Black Box: Opening Up the Intelligent Design Debate (Johns Hopkins, 2007). In addition to scholarly articles, he has written for Natural History, the New York Times Book Review, National Public Radio, Nature, Science, New Scientist, The Believer, and other publications. Should he expire tomorrow, he would be survived, in decreasing size order, by a son, a wife, a daughter, a dog, a cat, another cat, and still another cat.","sameAs":["http:\/\/genotopia.peachpuff-wolverine-566518.hostingersite.com"],"url":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/genotopia\/author\/genotopia\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgtNP1-9q","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/genotopia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/genotopia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/genotopia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/genotopia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/genotopia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=584"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/genotopia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/genotopia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/genotopia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/genotopia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}