Gene-editing: ethical and legal challenges

Abstract

The article focuses on gene-editing as a technology with unprecedented perspectives but also emerging ethical questions. The main general question is the urgency of the progress of science on the one hand and the responsibility of scientists with respect to the value of human life and fundamental human rights on the other. The article analyses the ethical discussion, considering the kind of intervention (on somatic line or on germ line) and purpose (preventivetherapeutic or enhancement), in the context of pluralistic debate. The author discusses the arguments in favor of the libertarians and utilitarians and the objections of the personalist perspective, and then analyses the Opinions of bioethics committee at national, European and international level.