Genetically modified babies have received ethical approval in the United Kingdom from the Nuffield Council of Bioethics following a review of genome editing to alter a human embryo, the BBC News reported on Tuesday.
Heritable genome editing could be used to end genetic diseases in certain families by deleting or permanently changing any troublesome code in embryos, or the sperm and egg.
However, using genome editing in embryos for assisted reproduction in humans is currently prohibited by law in the U.K., the BBC News noted.
Officials involved in the ethical review cautioned that measures must be put in place before such modifications can become legal and they called for additional research medically and socially.
"The implications for society are extensive, profound and long-term," the inquiry chair Karen Yeung said, according to the BBC News.
Yeung, a professor of law, ethics, and informatics at the University of Birmingham, told The Guardian that the Nuffield working group saw no issues for now with proper rules that would make such medical work unscrupulous.
"It is our view that genome editing is not morally unacceptable in itself," Yeung said. "There is no reason to rule it out in principle."
Even though the report called for additional research before any laws could be changed, it drew swift criticism from others, including one lobbying group accusing the authors of opening the door to the unrestricted use of heritable genetic engineering, The Guardian said.
"This is an absolute disgrace," said Dr. David King, director of the Human Genetics Alert, according to the BBC News. "We have had international bans on eugenic genetic engineering for 30 years.”
"But this group of scientists thinks it knows better, even though there is absolutely no medical benefit to this whatever. The Nuffield Council doesn't even bother to say no to outright designer babies. The people of Britain decided 15 years ago that they don't want GM food. Do you suppose they want GM babies?"
The Guardian said that in a new study, released on Monday in the journal Nature Biotechnology, British researchers found that Crispr-Cas9, the most popular genome editing tool, caused more damage to DNA than originally believed.
Jackie Leach Scully, professor of social ethics and bioethics at Newcastle University, a co-author, said such damage could lead to unintended consequences if the law were changed, leaving those without threat of a genetic disease feeling more marginalized and with less medical support.
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