Resumen de Ethical issues in genetically modified foods: From transgenesis to CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing technology

Erick Valdés, Juan Alberto Lecaros Urzúa

• Traditional ethical quandaries related to GM foods have been addressed profusely throughout the years. Still, some concerns remain regarding potential impacts on human health, natural environment and society. Moreover, the emergence of new genome editing technologies, such as CRISPR-Cas9, has implied relevant breakthroughs for plant and animal breeding. However, this enormous milestone in biotechnology has also raised new and unprecedented quandaries involving ethical, regulatory, policy and global governance dimensions. In this chapter, we analyze some of the ethical concerns that the production of GM foods involves, by addressing and discussing “traditional” issues as well as those emerging from new genome editing techniques.