Is Germline Genome Editing Identity-affecting?

Abstract

This article deals with the contentious problem whether He Jiankui’s GGE is an identity-affecting action and therefore whether it arises the non-identity problem. Differently from some leading authors in current debate, the author argues that GGE cannot be considered an identity-affecting intervention because it does not produce an unavoidable bad effect and does not eliminate the time gap between selection and modification, which could allow the doctor to change his mind and not modify the selected embryos.