Researchers renew calls for EU gene-editing reforms

Structured public debates should contribute to regulatory changes, say geneticists

The European Commission should organise citizens’ assemblies to help it develop regulations covering gene-editing techniques, such as CRISPR, according to a panel of prominent geneticists and ethicists.

Speaking at the Commission’s Research and Innovation Days conference in Brussels on 26 September, the academics said similar initiatives in the UK and Ireland to sound-out public feeling on controversial and complex bioethical issues could serve as templates.