Genome editing for human health

Genome editing is the latest variant of genetic engineering. Its rapid spread and the general recognition of its potential have raised high expectations for applications in human medicine and plant and animal breeding. Critics, however, place genome editing in the tradition of genetic engineering and point to the technology's shortcomings and uncertain implications. This chapter provides an overview of the applications of genome editing to humans (somatic genome editing and germline interventions). We present possible future developments and we illustrate the potentials, but also the problems that need to be solved when genome editing is applied to humans. Despite its novelty, human genome editing has been subject to assessments from different institutional and disciplinary perspectives. The chapter discusses the specific perspective of technology assessment in relation to other forms of reflective analysis and emphasises the importance of a global perspective in such activities.