Abstract

Genetic enhancement runs up against several moral issues, perhaps the chief of which is the inevitable eugenic attitude it would foster and the associated inequality it would create between those who have the “proper” enhancements and those who do not. For simplicity’s sake, this analysis leaves aside questions related to genetic enhancement and considers only changes made for therapeutic purposes. Regardless, most of the censure of He Jiankui focuses on the results of human modification and often overlooks the prior question of how gene editing research itself conducted. Germline gene editing in humans is not safe or morally licit under current practices and technology, because of its reliance on technologies such as IVF, the danger to and destruction of the embryos used, and the unknown consequences of changing the germline.