*Update, 4 June, 1:25 p.m.: By voice vote, the full Appropriations Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives today restored language to a 2020 spending bill that bars the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) from considering requests to approve any clinical trial “in which a human embryo is intentionally created or modified to include a heritable genetic modification.” Late last month, an appropriations subcommittee had removed the rider, which has been part of the spending bill that funds FDA for the past 4 years. Today, Democrats who lead the spending panel said they had removed the rider because they wanted to spur a fuller debate on how the U.S. government should regulate the genetic modification of human sperm, eggs, or embryos. In particular, they said that although they support a ban on using gene-editing tools such as CRISPR to modify babies, they were concerned that the FDA rider might also hinder the development of potentially helpful therapies, such as modifying a cell’s mitochondria to prevent heritable diseases. Several Democrats said they were reluctantly supporting the request from Republicans to restore the rider, and lawmakers from both parties suggested congressional health committees that shape agency policies need to address the issue comprehensively, rather than have it debated annually during the appropriations process.

Here is our previous story from 24 May:

A Democrat-led spending panel in the U.S. House of Representatives has dropped a provision that banned embryo editing with the intention of creating a baby. The draft bill is still moving through the legislative process, however, and Republicans will likely push to restore the language.

…continue reading ‘Update: House Spending Panel Restores US Ban on Gene-Edited Babies’

Image via Flickr  Some rights reserved by National Institutes of Health (NIH)

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