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Human germline gene editing constitutes an extremely promising technology; at the same time, however, it raises remarkable ethical, legal, and social issues. Although many of these issues have been largely explored by the academic literature, there are gender issues embedded in the process that have not received the attention they deserve. This paper examines ways in which this new tool necessarily affects males and females differently—both in rewards and perils. The authors conclude that there is an urgent need to include these gender issues in the current debate, before giving a green light to this new technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The applicability of the CRISPR-Cas9 tool to the cure of several flaws in human embryos has raised up the number of worldwide basic and preclinical trials. By the end of 2018, the birth of the first genetically edited twins in China was known, intending to prevent them from catching HIV, since one of their parents had already suffered it. This led to social alarm, as the gestation process was carried out in disregard of medical standards and the assessments of ethics committees. The purpose of the present paper is to establish whether the intervention could be considered therapy, prevention – when trying to prevent an expected future pathology – or whether, in contrast, it would be, as has been widely defended, a clear case of enhancement, drawing the boundaries between all of them. To this end, the Declaration of the Spanish Bioethics Committee will be examined, highlighting some of their scientific, ethical and legal claims, and providing some comments that could call into question its original position. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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