Regarding "genome editing" that can freely rewrite the genetic information of living organisms, the expert committee of WHO = World Health Organization has prepared a database to register research contents when applying it to humans, and there is an ethical problem. We issued a recommendation that we should monitor whether there is any.
WHO has set up a specialized committee to examine the problems of applying genome editing technology to humans in response to the problem that Chinese researchers rewrote human genetic information by genome editing to give birth to twins. It was installed a year ago and has been developing recommendations.
The expert committee announced the content of the recommendation on the 12th, in which genome editing may be useful for the treatment of genetic diseases, etc., while genome editing of fertilized human eggs is "passed on to the next generation" , It may change the characteristics of the offspring. "
After that, we issued a recommendation to WHO that we should prepare a database to register the research contents when applying genome editing to humans and monitor whether there are any ethical problems.
Professor Kazuto Kato of Osaka University Graduate School, who was one of the members of the expert committee and participated in the formulation of the recommendation, told NHK on the 13th, "Genome editing is an inexpensive technology that anyone can use. It is absolutely necessary to avoid communicating bad things, "he said, recognizing that it is necessary to strengthen the monitoring system.