OCR
JUDIT SÁNDOR interventions, such as germline gene editing, may be justified only in exceptional and justified cases to fight serious diseases. Consequently, gene editing also rewrites the structure of ethical debates. It affects the concept and cases of discrimination and the field of assisted reproductive procedures. It revolutionizes the concept of medical treatment. It may raise or reduce the inequalities based on health conditions. It may lead to numerous new rights in the field of genetics. Good gene editing practice can only be achieved through the close cooperation of natural and social sciences. CONCLUSIONS With the technical possibility of genome editing we have reached a new era of altering human beings and even altering human inheritance. Genome editing constitutes new responsibilities in many fields. Science and society have never been so much dependent on each other. We may look optimistically into our future with mRNA-based vaccines in our arms and may rightly hope to tackle other dreadful diseases by using genetic knowledge. But we must also learn from the past episodes of eugenics and the instances of fraud and failure that have been the result of merciless scientific competition, unfettered commercial interest, or simply individual pride. As human rights lawyers we need to engage in regular communication with scientists in the field of biotechnology, as these emerging technologies are going to shape humanness in the future, and they may influence the rights of children and adults, and affect our perceptions of disability, discrimination and privacy. BIBLIOGRAPHY BayLis, Francoise, Altered Inheritance, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press, 2019. BBC NEws, He Jiankui Defends ‘World’s First Gene-Edited Babies, BBC News (28 November 2018), https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-46368731. Brown, Louise, Louise Brown on 40 years of IVF: ‘I was the world’s first IVF baby, and this is my story’, Independent (25 July 2018), https://www.independent. co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/ivf-baby-louise-brown-story-test-tubeworld-first-40th-anniversary-a8455956.html. DARWIN, Leonard, The Geneticist’s Manifesto, The Eugenics Review 31 (1940), 229-230, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2962351/pdf/ eugenrev00238-0033.pdf. + 356 *