CRISPR Geographies

From 2026-2028, I will undertake a new piece of work on the reproductive geographies of CRISPR, a gene-editing technology.

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CRISPR for embryo editing is a technology in the making. It has been used amid much controversy and although it is not yet commercially available, there is evidence that some providers are eager to introduce it (and billions of pounds of venture capital investment suggests that markets are betting on its imminent profitability). Currently, most European countries have banned or restricted CRISPR for genome editing in human embryos, but it remains ambiguously regulated elsewhere.

CRISPR and Embryo Editing

Curing genetic disease

CRISPR for embryo editing has the potential to end genetic diseases with severe, life-limiting and life-shortening conditions. CRISPR might be used to edit embryos in order to fix genetic mutations that cause sickle cell anaemia, cystic fibrosis, or Duchenne muscular dystrophy, among others. Removing disease-causing mutations in the embryo would mean these diseases would not be heritable by future generations.

Altering inheritance

CRISPR for embryo editing raises the spectre of 'designer babies', meaning the editing of an embryo to add or remove genes corresponding to particular traits. Editing embryos for heritable traits that are not serious genetic diseases raises the bioethical questions about a future where parents might seek edits to imapct their child's physique, intelligence, or othter traits. Editing embryos, as opposed to using CRISPR for gene therapy in living people, changes the germ line (meaning changes are passed down to all subsequent generations).

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I hypothesize that CRISPR genome editing on embryos will shortly become a reproductive service available in some countries while banned in others, which will generate a cross-border economy in medical travel to access it. My research aims to advance the growing field of geographies of assisted reproduction by mapping the reproductive geography of CRISPR embryo editing. It doesn't seek to intervene in the intense ongoing bioethical debates about CRISPR. Rather, it starts from the idea that people across the world have different views about the ethical nature of reproductive technologies and they regulate them on that basis. This patchwork of regulation creates an uneven geography of reproductive services and creates widespread cross-border travel for reproductive services (among the wealthy). With growing demand for embryo editing, it follows that particular places will develop themselves as hubs for reproductive medicine that cater to these groups. This work is funded by the award of a Phillip Leverhulme Prize (2025).

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What are the political, ethical, and health implications of CRISPR as a reproductive technology and the associated reproductive geographies that it will produce?

Photo credit: This image was released by the National Human Genome Research Institute, an agency part of the National Institutes of Health, with the ID 85329. Photo obtained on Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:DNA_Double_Helix.png

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