A scientific publication describes bioethical issues of the possibilities and limitations of editing the human embryo genome for the first time in Russia

A group of experts in medical genetics, genomic editing and bioethics, including representatives of the FSBI RCMG, the Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Pirogov Russian National Research Medical University, the Institute of Scientific Information on Social Sciences of RAS, the Russian Association for Promotion of Science, Lomonosov Moscow State University, N.A. Alekseyev Psychiatric Clinical Hospital No. 1, the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, National Medical Research Centre for Endocrinology, V.N. Orekhovich Research Institute for Biomedical Chemistry and Academician V.I. Kulakov National Medical Research Centre for Obstetrics, Gynaecology and Perinatology, has published an expert opinion on genome editing in human embryos.

Both scientific community and public society lively discuss the prospects of human embryo genome editing. While the scientists mainly focus on the safety, efficacy and clinical feasibility of hereditary genome editing, the public focuses on some bioethical aspects of this issue - the prospects of 'baby design', formation of new forms of social inequalities and interference in human evolution in general. The article attempts to make an interdisciplinary analysis of medical, genetic and bioethical problems of human embryo genome editing, reveals the possibilities and limitations of genomic editing technology, and considers the specifics of ethical debates. Conceptualization of the main approaches of natural science and socio-humanitarian knowledge in a common theoretical framework allowed not only to take into account the complex nature of the problem, but also to create prerequisites for its further productive discussion.

E.G. Grebenshchikova, D.S. Andreyuk, P.Y. Volchkov, M.V. Vorontsova, E.K. Ginter, V.L. Izhevskaya, A.A. Lagunin, A.V. Polyakov, O.V. Popova, S.A. Smirnikhina, P.D. Tishchenko, D.Yu. Trofimov, S.I. Kutsev. Genome editing of human embryos: an interdisciplinary approach. Bulletin of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, 2021;76(1):86–92. doi: https://doi.org/10.15690/vramn1269.