Human Germline Genome Modification and the Right to Science A Comparative Study of National Laws and Policies

The advent of the CRISPR/Cas9 class of genome editing tools is transforming not just science and medicine, but also law. When the genome of germline cells is modified, the modifications could be inherited, with far-reaching effects in time and scale. Legal systems are struggling with keeping up with the CRISPR revolution and both lawyers and scientists are often confused about existing regulations. This book contains an analysis of the national regulatory framework in eighteen selected countries. Written by national legal experts, it includes all major players in bioengineering, plus an analysis of the emerging international standards and a discussion of how international human rights standards should inform national and international regulatory frameworks. The authors propose a set of principles for the regulation of germline engineering, based on international human rights law, that can be the foundation for regulating heritable gene editing both at the level of countries as well as globally.

1. Introduction Andrea Boggio,Cesare P. R. Romano and Jessica Almqvist; 2. The governance of human (germline) genome modification at the international and transnational level; Part I. North America: 3. The regulation of human germline genome modification in Canada Erika Kleiderman; 4. The regulation of human germline genome modification in the United States Kerry Lynn Macintosh; 5. The regulation of human germline genome modification in Mexico María de Jesús Medina Arellano; Part II. Europe: 6. The regulation of human germline genome modification in Europe Jessica Almqvist and Cesare P. R. Romano; 7. The regulation of human germline genome modification in the United Kingdom James Lawford Davies; 8. The regulation of human germline genome modification in Germany Timo Faltus; 9. The regulation of human germline genome modification in Belgium Guido Pennings; 10. The regulation of human germline genome modification in Sweden Santa Slokenberga and Heidi Carmen Howard; 11. The regulation of human germline genome modification in the Netherlands Britta van Beers, Charlotte de Kluiver and Rick Maas; 12. The regulation of human germline genome modification in Italy Ludovica Poli; 13. The regulation of human germline genome modification in Spain Iñigo de Miguel Beriain and Carlos María Romeo Casabona; 14. The regulation of human germline genome modification in France Alessandro Blasimme, Dorothée Caminiti and Effy Vayena; 15. The regulation of human germline genome modification in Switzerland Alessandro Blasimme, Dorothée Caminiti and Effy Vayena; Part III. Asia: 16. The regulation of human germline genome modification in Japan Tetsuya Ishii; 17. The regulation of human germline genome modification in The People's Republic of China Lingqiao Song and Rosario Isasi; 18. The regulation of human germline genome modification in The Republic of Korea Hannah Kim and Yann Joly; 19. The regulation of human germline genome modification in Singapore Calvin W. L. Ho; Part IV. Other OECD Countries: 20. The regulation of human germline genome modification in Australia Dianne Nicol; 21. The regulation of human germline genome modification in Israel Vardit Ravitsky and Gali Ben-Or; 22. Towards a human rights framework for the regulation of human germline genome modification Andrea Boggio, Cesare P. R. Romano and Jessica Almqvist.

Andrea Boggio is Professor of Legal Studies at Bryant University, Rhode Island. He holds a J.S.D. from Stanford University Law School.
Cesare P. R. Romano is Professor of Law and W. Joseph Ford Fellow, at Loyola Law School Los Angeles, Loyola Marymount University, California. He holds an LL.M. from New York University Law School and a Ph.D. from the Graduate Institute of International Studies of the University of Geneva.
Jessica Almqvist is Associate Professor in Public International Law at Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and Senior Research Fellow at the Elcano Royal Institute. She holds a Ph.D. in law from the European University Institute, Florence and a Diploma in graduate studies of political science from University of California, Berkeley.