Bioethics
Over the next decade life-changing biotechnologies will emerge, with potentially significant impact on European society. Increasingly, issues relating to biotechnology and ethics are being taken up by the European Institutions and by the Council of Europe. CEC monitors and contributes to this work.
Our work in this area seeks to increase cooperation with churches and church organisations, including ethics committees, universities, research centres, and academics. Read below our statements:
- Thematic Reference Group on Bioethics statement on alleged genome editing in China, 2019.
- CEC Response to Draft Ethics Guidelines for Trustworthy AI
Moral and Ethical Issues in Human Genome Editing (2019)
A Statement of the CEC Bioethics Thematic Reference Group, published in partnership with Globethics.net
Recent reports of a Chinese scientist who claims to have applied genome editing techniques to human embryos, which were subsequently implanted and resulted in the birth of live babies, means that the question of whether—and how—these techniques should be used in humans demands an urgent answer. This in-depth report takes a wider perspective on the issue, which concerns all people as individuals and collectively as a society. It challenges the alleged achievement in China as being profoundly unethical, reflecting a disregard for the ethical and professional concerns of the international scientific community.
Order print copies from: Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.fr | Amazon.de
For more information about our work in this area, please contact Rev. Sören Lenz.

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