Walking a Fine Germline: Synthesizing Public Opinion and Legal Precedent to Develop Policy Recommendations for Heritable Gene-Editing.

Gene-editing technologies, such as CRISPR/Cas9, are internationally ethically fraught. In the United States, policy surrounding gene-editing has yet to be implemented, while the science continues to speed ahead. However, it is not enough that policy be implemented: in order for policy to establish limits for the technology such that benefits are possible while threats are kept at bay, such policy must be ethical.

Anticipating the Ethical Challenges of Psychiatric Genetic Testing.

Purpose Of Review: Genetic testing for mental illness is likely to become increasingly prevalent as the science behind it is refined. This article identifies anticipated ethical challenges for patients, psychiatrists, and genetic counselors and makes recommendations for addressing them.

Recent Findings: Many of the ethical challenges of psychiatric genetic testing are likely to stem from failures to comprehend the nature and implications of test results.

Everything in moderation, even hype: learning from vaccine controversies to strike a balance with CRISPR.

The ease and applicability of CRISPR/Cas9--a new and precise gene editing and reproductive technology--have garnered hype and heightened concern about its potential 'unprecedented and horrific consequences' and have led many scientific leaders to call for a moratorium on its research and use. CRISPR appears distinctly more controversial than previous technological innovations (genetic or otherwise), with a greater reach and speed of human treatment and enhancement; however, we have seen similarly inflated hopes and fears in response to other medical innovations for well over a century. One intervention that has both historically and recently incited alarm--vaccines--serves as a pertinent example of what could go wrong if a technology's reach is shortened due to inflated fears.

CRISPR, a Crossroads in Genetic Intervention: Pitting the Right to Health against the Right to Disability.

Reproductive genetic technologies (RGTs), including gene-editing technology, are being discovered and refined at an exponential pace. One gene-editing innovation that demands our swift attention is CRISPR/Cas9, a system of clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats and a protein called Cas9. As CRISPR and other RGTs continue being developed, we must remain vigilant concerning the potential implications of genetic-engineering technology on our interpersonal and legal relationships.

Creating a three-parent child: an educational paradigm for the responsible conduct of research.

The field of assisted reproduction is renowned for its remarkable advances and constant pushing forward of research boundaries in an effort to offer innovative and effective methods for enhancing fertility. Accompanying these advances, however, are physiological, psychological, and bioethical consequences that must be considered. These concomitant advances and consequences make assisted reproduction an excellent educational paradigm for inculcating responsible conduct in both research and clinical practice.