Gene Experiment Comes Close to Crossing Ethicists’ Line

The trial, conducted by Avigen Inc. of Alameda, Calif., is designed to insert a corrective gene into the liver of patients with hemophilia B, the less common of two forms of hemophilia.

Two federal agencies that monitor gene therapy trials, the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health, wish to ensure that corrective genes are not allowed to enter patients’ eggs or sperm, known as germline cells.

Even though the genes might prevent the patients’ disease from recurring in the next generation, the agencies consider alteration of the human germline so profound a step that it should not be tried without further public discussion. NY Times