Legal status of embryo gene-editing in Spain in the light of controversial practices involving human germline
| Autor | Pedro Diaz Peralta |
| Páginas | 47-57 |
47
ATUTELA JURÍDICA DO EMBRIÃO NO DIREITO PORTUGUÊS
LEGAL STATUS OF EMBRYO GENE-EDITING IN SPAIN
IN THE LIGHT OF CONTROVERSIAL PRACTICES
INVOLVING HUMAN GERMLINE
PEDRO DIAZ PERALTA
(Universidad Complutense de Madrid - España)
1. INTRODUCTION
At the time of writing this paper, the insertion of primates´ DNA in human
embryos in China researc h cen tre, as announced by an international researc her
team led by the Spanish scientist Juan Carlos Izpisua1 , has proven to be highly
controversia l. As a result , a human- monkey «chimerae» viable for 20 days was
developed with the aim of studying critical early stages of embryonic development.
The term «chimerae» describes in genetics «an organism or tissue that contains at
least two different sets of DNA, most often originating from the fusion of as many
different zygotes (fertilized eggs)»2.
The use of gen e edi ting tech nolo gies, as an e xampl e of «dis rupti ve
techn ology», rais es serio us doubt s about the re al capa city of regul ators fo r
guaranteeing its use in accordance with well-established scientific and bioethics
principles. The Tsunami of gene editing, a s the 2020 Nobel Prize Professor Jennifer
Doudna deliberately defined in a classic article published in Nature in 20153, has
thus become a matter of growing concern about the unwanted consequences that
may derive from the uncontrolled use of new technologies such as CRISPR and
has bring again into discussion the imperative need of halting the irrepressible
race to obtain mutants, or even worse «chimerae». In a sharp contrast, the fact
that we know the technology for makin g H-bombs do not imply that we shall
actually built such kin d of devices.
1A. PARK . «Scientists Report Creating the First Embryo with Human and Non-Human Primate
Cells», Time, April,15th 2021: «In a ground-breaking experiment, researchers have successfull y
created the first human-monkey chimera. The work, published in the journal Cell, describes the
first embryo containing both human and monkey cells that was cultured for 20 days. Led by Juan
Carlos Izpisua Belmonte, the study represents the culmination of decades of work in understanding
early embryo developmen t in non-huma n spec ies, which Belmonte hopes will now a pply to
humans. But it is bound to raise serious ethical questions about the implications of combi ning
human cells with those from a different species (even if it is a closely related one), and the report was
accompanied by commentary from ethicists on how the work should be interpreted and what the
careful next steps should be in pursuing this line of study.» at https://time.com/5954818/first-human-
monkey-chimera-embryo/
2https://britannica. es/
3J. DOUDNA. «My whirlwind year with CRISPR», Nature, Vol 528. December 24-31th 2015, p. 469.
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