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The Conversation

Editing fetal genomes is on the horizon − a medical anthropologist explains why ethical discussions with the target communities should happen sooner rather than later

The Conversation
Summary
Nutrition label

86% Informative

Gene editing involves editing DNA of a fetus visible inside a pregnant person’s womb without intent to affect future descendants.

Researchers can already start exploring the ethics by engaging communities well ahead of time.

Prenatal genome editing offers a chance to address cellular disease processes early, perhaps even preventing symptoms from ever appearing.

Julia Brown : Pregnant genome therapies could reduce health care costs.

She says they need to address both cost and trust issues to distribute the therapies equitably.

Brown: All genome editing procedures are expensive, but there hasn’t been much progress yet.

Underrepresented families tend to have less trust in the health care system at large, she says.

VR Score

88

Informative language

90

Neutral language

32

Article tone

informal

Language

English

Language complexity

64

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not offensive

Hate speech

not hateful

Attention-grabbing headline

not detected

Known propaganda techniques

not detected

Time-value

long-living

External references

36

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