The U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) has confirmed it would ban funding for research projects involving genetical alterations of human embryos.
In April, China made the news when its researchers announced that they have succeeded for the first time in genetically editing a human embryo.
Scientists all over the world may have been astonished by the breakthrough, but there are those who insist that the process is illegal. Now, the NIH agrees. According to a statement from its director, Dr. Francis Collins, embryo editing has been used in various studies involving other organisms.
The technique called CRISPR/Cas9 paved the way for an easy understanding of the genetic cause of disease in laboratory mice. The same technique was also employed to develop antibiotics.
CRISPR/Cas9 may offer several benefits, but Collins said the NIH would refrain from funding any technologies that involve human embryo editing. He added that while the concept has been used for clinical purposes for many years, it still remained a subject of debate and was viewed as "a line that should not be crossed," as reported in the Scientific American.
The ban was introduced on June 17, and according to Nature, the bill on it will also instruct the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to organize a committee of religious experts to review an upcoming report from the Institute of Medicine on the ethics of developing embryos from three genetic parents.
Human embryo editing that is funded by private organizations remains legal in the U.S.. However, the new bill will aim to make clinical trials for the procedure much harder.
The bill will also specify that the FDA should not use federal funds to allow any research projects involving the creation or modifications of human embryos.
The bill has already passed the subcommittee level, according to Nature, but will still need the approval of the House, the Senate and the President to become official.
