Abstract

This Opinion deals with the legal framework concerning interventions in human germline genes in Belgium. Gene modification methods are not new and have been used for several decades playing an essential role in biomedical research. The development of new genome editing technologies, such as CRISPR-Cas9 have made possible simple and precise modifications. What makes CRISPR-Cas9 different from earlier known techniques for genetic modification is that it is cheap, easy and quick to work with, which has made it easily accessible. The 40 years old global consensus on prohibiting human germline gene modification has come under significant pressure in 2015. The announcement in April 2015 of genome editing of non-viable human embryos using CRISPR-Cas9 demonstrated that human germline modification has moved out of the realm of the theoretical.