Council of Europe's Bioethical Committee Now Permits Gene Modification of Human Embryos

Jeanne Smits : Oct 26, 2022
LifeSiteNews.com

...In the case of embryos, this means they should be left to die or (be) destroyed, typically by the 14th day of development. But that is only part of the problem: the very fact of tinkering with human reproductive cells and embryos is in itself a grave transgression.

[LifeSiteNews.com] The Oviedo Convention is the only binding international text that aims to protect human rights and the dignity of the human being in the field of medical and biological techniques and practice. Linked to the Council of Europe, the Convention is set to undergo a modification of the guidelines for its interpretation. This will lead to opening loopholes in its general ban on editing the human genome in the human embryo. (Screengrab image)

A working group was set up in June 2021 at the demand of the Bioethics Committee of the Council of Europe (COE), tasked with "clarifying" the Oviedo Convention's Article 13, which contains a blanket ban on editing the human embryo in the following terms:

"An intervention seeking to modify the human genome may only be undertaken for preventive, diagnostic or therapeutic purposes and only if its aim is not to introduce any modification in the genome of any descendants."

In other words, any editing of the genome of the human embryo whose modification would be hereditary was declared out of bounds by the Convention, and that is how Article 13 was understood. Editing was allowed for medical, clinical purposes, to help people who are ill or to prevent illness in individuals.

In the field of bioethics, however, scientific progress and changing conditions have long been used as excuses to modify existing regulations as time goes by, adapting laws to the desires and requirements of research. International competition and the "necessity" of keeping up with nations who have no such regulations play a role in this ever-drifting set of norms... Subscribe for free to Breaking Christian News here

Continue reading here.