The draft recommendation entitled “recourse to new genetic technologies in human beings” was adopted on 25 April 2017 by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe’s Committee for Social Affairs (see Council of Europe reflects on editing of embryo genes). It will be debated during the next plenary session to be held in Strasbourg from 26 to 30 June.
This report written by Belgian MP, Petra de Sutter, “urges Member States that have not yet ratified the Oviedo Convention to do so as quickly as possible or at least to prevent, at national level, pregnancies induced with germ cells or human embryos, the genome of which has been modified intentionally”. The rapporteur believes that these techniques “are not sufficiently safe as yet”, and “the intentional modification of the human genome would cross boundaries deemed to be ethically inviolable”. The Commission is also calling for an” open and informed public debate”. It is asking the Council of Europe Bioethics Committee to develop a common regulatory and legal framework. The Member States are at last under pressure to “adopt a clear national stance on the practical use of new genetic technologies” by fixing limits and rules governing good practices.
Assemblée Parlementaire du Conseil de l’Europe (26/04/2017)