WIKIMEDIA, ZEPHYRISWith the advent of technologies such as CRISPR-Cas9, genome editing has shot to prominence both in the life-science laboratory and on the ethical radar screens of the general public and bioethicists alike. As researchers report successes in using precision genome editing on somatic and germline cells, a new survey of attitudes among genetics professionals indicates that people working in the field have views that differ in important ways from opinions held by the general public.
“There is a need for an ongoing international conversation about genome editing, but very little data on how people trained in genetics view the technology,” says Alyssa Armsby, who led the research as a graduate student in the Stanford University lab of geneticist Kelly Ormond, in a statement. “As the ones who do the research and work with patients and families, they’re an important group of stakeholders.”
Armsby, Ormond, and their collaborators queried 500 genetics professionals culled from large, professional organizations from around the world, including the American Society of Human Genetics, the Human Genetics Society of Australasia, and others. Of these respondents, about 55 percent worked as clinicians or genetics counselors and about 30 percent were laboratory researchers.
Presenting their preliminary data at the ...
