Alex Tritell won the ABA Health Law Section student writing competition in spring 2022. His article, “In WHO’s Interest? Regulating Human Germline Gene Editing,” poses questions about the legal implications of human gene modification and advocates for a pragmatic approach that involves careful oversight.
Tritell’s interest in the legal issues raised by gene editing was sparked by a stunning revelation in November 2018, when a Chinese biophysicist, He Jiankui, announced the birth of the world’s first gene-edited babies. He had altered embryos harvested for fertility treatments before implantation to bestow an ability to resist possible future infection with HIV, and his client had given birth to twin girls with modified genes. The backlash from the global scientific and medical communities was swift. He was condemned for moving ahead with a risky and ethically dubious procedure with inadequate consent from the families involved. He was subsequently fired by his university in Shenzhen and received a three-year prison sentence for illegally altering the embryos.
Tritell took health law scholar James F. Blumstein’s Health Policy seminar as a 2L in part because he wanted to explore how legal regimes should balance the dangers and promise of gene editing. His seminar paper focused on the ethical dilemmas posed by gene editing and the international legal landscape required to regulate the new landscape of heritable gene modifications.
“Gene editing has emerged from the realm of science fiction into reality,” Tritell said. “The potential to create ‘designer babies’ or eliminate certain diseases is no longer hypothetical; it’s a contemporary issue that warrants urgent policy discussion and regulatory action. The benefits and risks could change society forever.”
Tritell entered an edited version of the paper in the Health Law Section’s student writing competition. Bioethics expert Ellen Wright Clayton reviewed his draft and provided insights. He learned he had won the competition at the end of March 2022.
In the paper, Tritell identifies and discusses six major ethical dilemmas raised by gene editing and discusses the international legal landscape of gene-editing regulation. “I focused only on gene edits that create permanent changes that the child will exhibit and pass on to offspring because these edits at the embryonic stage have implications for the greater human genome,” he said.
He concludes that gene editing bans are neither realistic nor achievable. “The United States should accept the scientific and technological inevitability of gene-editing technology and foster a responsible, prudent environment for its gradual development,” he writes. “Appropriate oversight mechanisms, public input, and regulations and the most pragmatic path forward, both domestically and internationally.”
Tritell ends his paper with a call to action, urging U.S. policymakers to follow the World Health Organization’s Recommendations and Framework for Governance and “take a leadership position in defining global norms” with the goal of harnessing the benefits of gene editing while identifying and acting to minimize potential risks and harms.
The article was published in June 2022 edition of The Health Lawyer, the Health Law Section’s flagship journal. As a prize, Tritell received a cash award and an expense-paid trip to the section’s 2022 Emerging Issues in Healthcare Law Conference.
Since winning the competition, he has continued to pursue his interest in these issues, including working as a research assistant to Clayton, with whom he co-authored an article on genetic privacy issues.