2017, Vol.18, No.2

Journal of the Korea Bioethics Association 2023 KCI Impact Factor : 0.55

pISSN : 1598-0324
https://journal.kci.go.kr/kba

The purpose of this paper is to suggest a model for responding to ethical issues of genome editing technology. I argue three things. First, I argue that genome editing technology should be differently understood in two senses, its narrow sense and wide sense. The former is a technical sense but the latter is a clinical sense. Through this distinction, we should understand that current researches of genome editing technology are not related to a clinical but only a technical advance. Second, I argue that preclinical researches including animal experimentation should be sufficiently performed and, then, clinical trials about human embryo or human to develop a new treatment can do. Through this claim, we should remember that current requests of clinical trial with human embryo are too hasty and impatient. Third, I argue that dynamic and plural risk model can effectively respond to ethical issues or risks of genome editing technology. This is because this model can dynamically respond to risks according to the advance of knowledge concerning genome editing technology.

Recently, several research teams have conducted research on human embryonic genome editing therapy. This has facilitated deliberation on the ethical, legal and social implications of human embryonic gene therapy. This article reviews the work of researchers in this field to summarize how the genome editing technology is different from the pre-existing gene therapy, and figure out whether such changes mitigate previous concerns that prohibit the practice of gene therapy on the embryo. Off-target effects, mosaicism, and mutations induced by the double-stranded DNA breakage are mentioned as major obstacles that impede the human embryonic genome editing therapy. Researchers tend to focus primarily on how to solve such issues in a technical perspective, without sufficiently considering the potential consequences that could arise when this technology was applied to human embryonic gene therapy. For the sake of the general public and for the advancement of research, we need more comprehensive research in this field and subsequent productive discussions on embryonic gene therapy.

Genome editing (also called gene editing) is a group of technologies that give scientists the ability to change an organism's DNA. These technologies allow genetic material to be added, removed, or altered at particular locations in the genome. Several approaches to genome editing have been developed. A recent one is known as CRISPR-Cas9, which is short for clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats and CRISPR-associated protein 9. The CRISPR-Cas9 system has generated a lot of excitement in the scientific community because it is faster, cheaper, more accurate, and more efficient than other existing genome editing methods. Genome editing is of great interest in the prevention and treatment of human diseases. Currently, most research on genome editing is done to understand diseases using cells and animal models. Scientists are still working to determine whether this approach is safe and effective for use in people. It is being explored in research on a wide variety of diseases, including single-gene disorders such as cystic fibrosis, hemophilia, and sickle cell disease. It also holds promise for the treatment and prevention of more complex diseases, such as cancer, heart disease, mental illness, and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. Ethical concerns arise when genome editing, using technologies such as CRISPR-Cas9, is used to alter human genomes. Changes made in the genes of an embryo could be passed to future generations. Embryo genome editing bring up a number of ethical challenges, including whether it would be permissible to use this technology to enhance normal human traits. This study examines the ethical and social issues related to human embryo genome editing, the contents of the related foreign legislations, and the reform of domestic law.