International Coalition
To Stop Designer Babies
Despite global outrage, the British government is now trying to overturn the legal ban on Human Genetic Editing (HGE) this year. HGE would create genetic changes with unpredictable long term effects which would be passed on to all future generations, affecting their human rights and intergenerational equity.
Stop Designer Babies (UK), Gen-ethisches Netzwerk (Germany) and Alliance for Humane Biotechnology (USA) drafted the following International Declaration Against Legalisation of Human Genetic Modification.
They call on individuals, organisations and institutions to join them in the International Coalition (to be handed to the UN) to demand a global agreement banning human genetic editing and cloning, and to Stop Designer Babies.
Why
On March 6-8, 2023, the Third International Summit on Human Genome Editing was held in London. The first Summit was held in Washington DC (2015), the second in Hong Kong (2018). The current state of research on genome interventions and possible interventions in the human germline were being discussed. The presentations at the summit also shows that this was an opportunity to lobby for the introduction of germline genome editing. The organizer of the Summit Robin Lovell-Badge said as closing words that the clinical application of germline - i.e. heritable genome editing would be unacceptable at this point in time, and that we would need public discussions and political debates to clarify whether we want this germline genome editing at all. This is at odds with the fact that Robin Lovell-Badge is chairman of the organizing committee that is trying to change legislation in the UK to lift the ban on germline genome editing.
Beyond the Summit
The Centre for Genetics and Society (USA) organized a Zoom Summit (Feb 27 & 28, 2023) putting social justice and human rights in the center of the debates on Heritable Genome Editing. You will hear voices and perspectives of the civil society in these discussions.
