Governance of “Do-It-Yourself” Gene Editing

Add to Calendar: Add to Calendar: 2020-02-04 12:00:00 2020-02-04 13:00:00 Governance of “Do-It-Yourself” Gene Editing Event Description A large and highly heterogeneous group of individuals conducts genetic and genomic research outside of traditional corporate and academic settings. They can be an important source of innovation, but their activities largely take place beyond the purview of existing regulatory systems for promoting safe and ethical practices. Historically the gene-targeting technology available to non-traditional experimenters has been limited, and therefore they have attracted little regulatory attention. New techniques such as CRISPR-cas9, however, may create a need for alternate governance approaches. This lecture explores whether alternate governance approaches might be needed and, if so, what governance approaches would be most likely to enable non-traditional experiments to be conducted safely and ethically. Speaker Information Maxwell J. Mehlman is Distinguished University Professor, Arthur E. Petersilge Professor of Law and Director of the Law-Medicine Center, Case Western Reserve University School of Law, and Professor of Biomedical Ethics, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. He received his JD from Yale Law School in 1975, and holds two bachelors' degrees, one from Reed College and one from Oxford University, which he attended as a Rhodes Scholar. Prior to joining the Case Western Reserve faculty in 1984, Mehlman practiced law with Arnold & Porter in Washington, D.C., where he specialized in federal regulation of health care and medical technology. He is the co-author of Access to the Genome: The Challenge to Equality; co-editor, with Tom Murray, of the Encyclopedia of Ethical, Legal and Policy Issues in Biotechnology; co-author of Genetics: Ethics, Law and Policy, the first casebook on genetics and law, now in its fourth edition; and author of Wondergenes: Genetic Enhancement and the Future of Society, published in 2003 by the Indiana University Press; The Price of Perfection: Individualism and Society in the Era of Biomedical Enhancement, published in 2009 by the Johns Hopkins University Press; and Transhumanist Dreams and Dystopian Nightmares: The Promise and Peril of Genetic Engineering, published in 2012 by the Johns Hopkins University Press. Moot Courtroom (A59) School of Law School of Law America/New_York public