Political Quotes

“I rise today to introduce a Senate Resolution calling for the international community to come together and determine the ethical limits of gene- editing technology to avoid future misuse like what was recently discovered in China. Gene editing is a powerful new technology that has the potential to lead to new therapies for devastating and previously untreatable diseases. Today, there are already promising clinical trials using gene-editing technology that hope to treat cancer, sickle cell disease and other terrible diseases. However, like any new technology, there is potential for misuse and that is what happened with recent experiments in China. These experiments involving gene-edited human embryos failed in every measure to meet the ethical and scientific standards for research with human subjects. First and foremost, the scientist put the health of the mother and her children at risk by using an unproven technology without adequate safeguards. Furthermore, human clinical research must be conducted for a legitimate medical purpose. In this case, gene-editing was used to prevent the children from being able to acquire HIV. There are already safe and effective ways to prevent HIV infection that do not involve the use of gene-editing technology. In addition, clinical research participants should never be misled when obtaining informed consent.…”