Geneva, July 7: The dangers of genetic engineering, altering the structural foundation of life, can be controlled, an international panel of top scientists has told the World Health Organization. The panel, meeting here privately at the end of last month, has made recommendations for action which, a WHO official said, would “give the amber light” to research on artificial recombination of genes. This is a field which has caused disquiet among many scientists because of the prospect of “engineering” human beings by changing genes. “The field has tremendous implications in cancer research, for example,” a WHO spokesman said yesterday. “But last year it was discovered that it could have unexpected and fatal results.” The details of the recommendations by the WHO’s Advisory Committee on medical research are being kept secret until July 24. The committee heard a report from Dr. E.S. Anderson, of the London Central Public Health Laboratory on his work, the WHO spokesman said. A WHO statement last week said only that the committee “discussed at some length the safety problems involved in the experimental handling of pathogenic organisms.” It added, “Special attention was given to the developments which are likely to stem from the new techniques which have recently become available.” The statement added: “This powerful methodology amounts to performing artificial recombination between genes of different organisms. It was recognised by the committee that extremely important advances in medical science could be expected from the application of these techniques to the solution of a wide variety of problems in the prevention and therapy of human and animal diseases.”
Published – July 09, 2025 02:45 am IST