CRISPR/Cas9 - regulatory issues

In the previous blog entry the basics of the CRISPR/Cas9 method has been elucidated. Now we want to talk about the future of this method. However to talk about the future of CRISPR/Cas9 we have to talk about the legal regulations concerning the application of this method. The following blog entry considers the contemporary juridical situation and will give ideas on how to deal with that issue in the near future.

To regulate the application and the admission of CRISPR/Cas9 it is of great importance to determine whether CRISPR/Cas9 treated organism are to be seen as GMOs (genetically modified organisms) or not. In Switzerland, the Federal Office for the Environment has submitted a substantial study concerning the classification of GMOs in the year 2012. However in this study called “Grundlagen für die Klärung offener Fragen bei der rechtlichen Regulierung neuer Pflanzenzuchtverfahren” (Vogel, 2012) the CRISPR/Cas9 method is not mentioned. This shows that the topic is still at issue and is debated in Switzerland as well as in whole Europe (Lucht, 2016).

In 2015, the “Swiss Expert Comitee for Biosafety SECB” proposed to not classify the products of CRISPR/Cas9 as GMOs because the genetical modifications used for the production of these organism can’t be detected anymore in the finished products (SECB, 2015).

The “answer” to this Proposal by the SECB, followed in march 2016 by the “Federal Ethics Comitee on Non-Human Biotechnology ECNH”. The Comitee concludes in the related paper, that there is not enough knowledge on this topic at this time to evaluate if the concerning organisms have to be treated as GMOs or not. This is why the ECNH postulates to act by the “precautionary principle” (ECNH, 2016).

As a last point there is to say that this debate concerning the new techniques of plantbreeding, is held almost exclusively among experts at this time. This is probably the reason why there isn’t a distinctive public opinion on this topic yet. However it is beyond discussions that the research on this issue has to continue and that the populace has to be integrated in this debate as well.

References:

Vogel B. (2012). Neue Pflanzenzuchtverfahren - Grundlagen für die Klärung offener Fragen bei der rechtlichen Regulierung neuer Pflanzenzuchtverfahren. Baudirektion des Kantons Zürich, AWEL, SBS

Lucht J. (2016). Fact Sheet – Neue gentechnische Verfahren. scienceindustries Zürich

Swiss Expert Comitee for Biosafety SECB (2015). Bericht der EFBS zu Neuen Pflanzenzuchtverfahren. SECB

Federal Ethics Comitee on Non-Human Biotechnology ECNH (2016). Neue Pflanzenzüchtungsverfahren – ethische Überlegungen. ECNH