The case for genetically engineered babies

Whoever first crosses the line to edited embryos will find a powerful new resource in the fight against disease. What we ought to do is use it responsibly

The first study to modify the genes of a human embryo, conducted at Sun Yat-sen University in China, has caused a furious backlash. Nature and Science, the world's most prestigious scientific journals refused to publish the study, at least partly on ethical grounds. Instead they published commentaries calling for such research to be stopped. On Wednesday, the US government's National Institutes of Health (NIH) restated their position that it will "not fund any use of gene-editing technologies in human embryos." The NIH views such editing of the "germline" in human embryos as "a line that should not be crossed." The stance will essentially stifle any research on gene editing in embryos in the US.

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