Germline interventions and the protection of embryos

Further background is presented in:

Albrecht, S. / König, H. / Sauter, A. (2021): Genome Editing am Menschen. Endbericht zum Monitoring. TAB-Arbeitsbericht Nr. 191. Berlin: Büro für Technikfolgen-Abschätzung beim Deutschen Bundestag (TAB): Kapitel 3, insb. 85ff., 96. Online Version(German)

Deutscher Ethikrat (2019): Eingriffe in die menschliche Keimbahn. Stellungnahme: 119ff. Online Version(German)

German Ethics Council (2019): Intervening in the Human Germline. Opinion. Executive Summary & Reccomendations. Online Version

Faltus, T. (2020): The regulation of human germline genome modification in germany. In: A. Boggio / C. Romano / J. Almqvist (ed.): Human germline genome modification and the right to science: A comparative study of national laws and policies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: 241-265. doi:10.1017/9781108759083.009. Online Version

So far, different types of embryos have been used for genome editing research (tripronuclear, supernumerary, specifically generated as well as cloned). Not all research objectives can be performed equally on all types of embryos. For example, tripronuclear embryos tend to mosaic. If the basic permissibility of embryo research under conditions is affirmed, there currently seems to be a consensus that this type of research should be carried out on orphaned/surplus embryos.

The consumption of embryos for research on genome editing is listed in numbers here: