Ethical concerns regarding human gene editing are currently a subject of debate within the research community. In December 2015, the organizing committee of the international summit on human gene editing published a statement in which the advocates point to the necessity of the ethical and legal support and regulation of the procedure of genome editing, both with regard to the basic research as well as the possibility of clinical application. In that respect they relate to technologies which genetically alter human germ cells as well as somatic cells of human origin.

According to the committee, the reasons for the necessity of an ethical and legal regulation are among others: 

• the risks of inaccurate or incomplete editing of the cells including the associated risks for the carriers of the modified cells,
• the limited possibility to predict the “harmful effects that genetic changes may have under the wide range of circumstances“ like e.g. environmental impacts on gene expression,
• “the possibility that permanent genetic ‘enhancements’ to subsets of the population could exacerbate social inequities”,

• “the fact that, once introduced into the human population, genetic alterations would be difficult to remove” and reverse, which also imposes risks upon “future generations who will carry the genetic alterations”.

In the light of these concerns, the advocates of the organizing committee bind themselves to refrain from using genetically modified embryos for the purpose of inducing pregnancy and call on the international research community to follow this stipulation. Moreover, they demand an alignment of the existing national legislation with respect to human genome editing in order to ensure an ethically admissible basic research and a possible clinical application across state borders.