Editing the Future: A Call for Justice, Humility, and Communion.

Abstract

Technology must exist in the service of people, particularly those suffering from illness and disease. Drawing on decades of experience as the cofounder of a rare genetic disease research organization and my participation in the liberation theology movement of the Roman Catholic Church, in this Perspective, I discuss the high stakes of human heritable genome editing. Values forged in civil rights and social justice movements can inform how genome editing projects consider the vulnerable, the poor, and the voiceless. Those empowered in academia, biotech, philanthropy, and policy should understand that questions about genome editing entail responsibility for shaping the very concept of shared humanity.