WHO Advisory Panel, "Ethical Standards Must Be Established for Gene Editing Technology"

The expert advisory panel of the World Health Organization (WHO) announced the "Human Gene Editing: Positioning Paper" on the 12th (local time). (Image source=WHO)

[Asia Economy Reporter Chunhee Lee] The World Health Organization (WHO) advisory panel has pointed out the need to establish global standards to prevent the indiscriminate use of gene editing technology.

On the 12th (local time), the WHO expert advisory panel released the "Human Genome Editing: Position Paper," urging the creation of ethical standards for gene editing technology.

Composed of ethicists, legal experts, and policy officials, the advisory panel expressed concerns in the position paper about the potential for gene editing without guaranteed safety for disease treatment or gene editing aimed at artificially enhancing human physical abilities. To address these concerns, the panel recommended establishing international ethical standards for gene editing technology, implementing procedures for the international registration of gene editing experiments, and efforts to protect whistleblowers.

Gene editing is a biotechnology that selectively removes genes or substitutes bases to induce mutations. Last year, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Dr. Emmanuelle Charpentier and Dr. Jennifer Doudna for their development of the "CRISPR/Cas9" gene scissors.

However, ethical issues related to gene scissors continue to be raised. In particular, the 2018 birth of twin girls with edited genes in China served as a backdrop for this position paper. In 2018, Chinese scientist He Jiankui announced the birth of twin girls whose genes were edited to be immune to the AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) virus, sparking controversy. He was later sentenced by a Chinese court to three years in prison and fined 3 million yuan (approximately 531.18 million KRW) for illegal medical practice.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.