Germline Modifications as a Severe Intervention into Human Nature

Abstract

Manipulation of the human germline is sometimes criticised as a severe intervention into human nature. In order to assess the tenability of this claim, different uses of the term “human nature” and distinct scientific and clinical contexts must be differentiated. The first live birth of an edited human child will probably take the form of an unproven intervention and not a clinical trial. As an unproven intervention, germline manipulation must be regarded as a severe intervention into the nature of a prospective newborn. Nevertheless, once the technique of germline manipulation can be regarded as a safe therapeutic option, and if its use is restricted to the prevention of severe genetic diseases, it can no longer be regarded as a particularly severe intervention into human nature. However, such a use would make human nature the object of technoscience and the edited human beings would have to be regarded as biofacts, i. e., a form of incarnated and living technological design. This introduces a new quality into the notion of “human nature”, which can be regarded as ethically acceptable, as long as the intervention is restricted to the prevention of severe genetic diseases.