Gene editing and disabled people: a response to Felicity Boardman

Abstract

Is the germline gene editing (GEE) of embryos with disabling conditions a moral obligation? According to a recent editorial by F. Broadmann, there are strong reasons to hold the opposite, since “ such a focus on the benefit to individual embryos is to overlook the broader societal changes that genome editing will signal, as well as the potential negative impacts on existing persons with genetic conditions”. This paper is aimed at rebuking these arguments by invoking the human dignity principle