Democratic Governance of Human Germline Genome Editing

An international regulatory commission convened by scientific academies is a premature and problematic approach to governing human germline genome editing. Given the complex, international landscape of genome editing and significant cross-national differences among regulatory cultures, deferring to a single commission to set the agenda for global governance raises troublesome questions of framing and representation. Rather, democratic governance on a global level demands a new mechanism for active, sustained reflection by scientists on their own practices, conducted in partnership with scholars from other disciplines, as well as public representatives from varied social, political, and religious backgrounds. To be legitimate, ideas of the right form of governance in this emerging and highly consequential area of research need to be opened up to a wider diversity of views and voices.