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Rethink public engagement for gene editing

The breadth of social and moral questions raised requires a new architecture for democratic debate, insists Simon Burall.
  1. Simon Burall

    1. Simon Burall is a senior associate at the UK charity Involve in London, which provides advice to the Sciencewise programme.

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Illustration by Marina Muun

Over the past three years, thousands of articles have been published about editing genes and genomes. Apart from a public dialogue run by the Royal Society at the end of last year, there’s been little attempt to engage the public on the implications of the technology in a way that could alter the decisions of scientists and policymakers. Indeed, concern about the lack of effective public engagement has motivated several workshops, including one by the intergovernmental Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

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Nature 555, 438-439 (2018)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-018-03269-3

References

  1. Danish Board of Technology. Consensus Conference on the Application of Knowledge gained from Mapping the Human Genome (Danish Board of Technology, 1989); available at go.nature.com/2oxtjr1

  2. The Academy of Medical Sciences. Animals Containing Human Material (The Academy of Medical Sciences, 2011).

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  3. Grove, J. ‘Populism and polarisation “threaten science”, Nobel laureates say’ Times Higher Education (31 August 2017).

  4. Chilvers, J., Pallet, H. & Hargreaves, T. Public Engagement with Energy: Broadening Evidence, Policy and Practice (UK Energy Research Centre, 2017).

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