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Should We Hold the (Germ) Line?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2021

Erik Parens
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Extract

In 1982, the President's Commission produced its report on human gene therapy. One of that report's recommendations was to expand the Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee (RAC) to the National Institutes of Health to include a subcommittee on human gene therapy. In 1984, the Human Gene Therapy Subcommittee was established, and in 1989 it produced a document—“Points to Consider for Protocols for the Transfer of Recombinant DNA into Human Subjects”—that stated the RAC's position on what sorts of protocols it would approve.

In assessing the impact of the President's Commission report, Alexander Capron wrote,

[t]he line [the report] drew between somatic cell and germ-line therapies has shaped subsequent discussions and policy formulation. Its conclusion … that somatic cell therapy resembles medical treatment is the basic premise of the RAC subcommittee's “Points to Consider,” while the Commission's view that ethical as well as technical barriers preclude present attempts to alter germ cells continues to be generally accepted by scientists and nonscientists alike.

Type
Article
Information
Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics , Volume 23 , Issue 2 , Summer 1995 , pp. 173 - 176
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics 1995

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References

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The somatic/germ cell distinction will be important throughout this essay. Germ cells are those involved in reproduction (ova and sperm); alterations of germ cells are passed on to future generations. Somatic cells are all of the other cells in the body; alterations of them are not passed on.Google Scholar
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