How can the public help shape the future of human genome editing?
A recap of last week's Ethix Series talk with Prof. Simon Niemeyer from the University of Canberra and Francesco Veri from the University of Zurich.
Deliberation and the Human Genome: The Challenge of Issue Complexity
Last week, our lab welcomed external page Prof. Simon Niemeyer from the University of Canberra and external page Francesco Veri from the University of Zurich. They shared insights from their research on external page the Australian Citizens' Jury, a deliberative process exploring the ethical implications of human genome editing.
The jury, comprised of 23 Australians from diverse backgrounds, grappled with the question: "Under what conditions might human genome editing be acceptable?" After three days of intensive discussion, they expressed support for therapeutic genome editing under strict regulation but believed "heritable genome editing" should not be done.
In their talk to our group, Professor Niemeyer and Dr. Veri's focused on key questions:
- Why is deliberation important?
- How can we understand the public interest on complex topics?
- What is deliberative reason?
- What is issue complexity?
- How can we empirically measure deliberative reason?
To watch the talk, please find below the recording of the talk below or via this link on YouTube: external page https://youtu.be/hgaOiagCGv0?si=l5DjsM36as00x5ca
