Background: Has acceptance of heritable genome editing (HGE) and whole genome sequencing for preimplantation genetic testing (PGT-WGS) of human embryos changed after the onset of COVID-19 among infertility patients?
Design: A written survey conducted between April & June 2018 and July & December 2021 among patients at a university-affiliated infertility practice. The questionnaire ascertained the acceptance of HGE for specific therapeutic or genetic ‘enhancement’ indications and of PGT-WGS to prevent adult disease.
Results: In 2021 & 2018, 172 & 469 patients (response rates: 90% and 91%, respectively) completed the questionnaire.
In 2021, statistically-significantly more participants reported a positive attitude towards HGE, for therapeutic and enhancement indications. In 2021 compared with 2018, respondents were more likely to use HGE to have healthy children with their own gametes (85% versus 77%), to reduce disease risk for adult-onset polygenic disorders (78% versus 67%), to increase life expectancy (55% versus 40%), intelligence (34% versus 26%) and creativity (33% versus 24%). 15% of the 2021 group reported a more positive attitude towards HGE because of COVID-19 and less than 1% a more negative attitude.
In contrast, support for PGT-WGS was similar in 2021 and 2018.
Conclusion: A statistically-significantly increased acceptance of HGE was observed, but not of PGT-WGS, after the onset of COVID-19. Although the pandemic may have contributed to this change, the exact reasons remain unknown and warrant further investigation. Whether increased acceptability of HGE may indicate an increase in acceptability of emerging biomedical technologies in general needs further investigation.
[Keywords: gene editing, COVID-19, CRISPR/Cas9, whole genome sequencing, preimplantation genetic screening, human genome]
