Number of inquiries in the Bundestag regarding genetic engineering procedures is increasing

Since November 2020, both the Alliance 90/The Greens parliamentary group and the FDP parliamentary group have submitted inquiries regarding genetic engineering techniques, which the federal government has responded to. The inquiry from the Alliance 90/The Greens parliamentary group concerned new genetic engineering techniques (NGT), for which the federal government drew on the results of an analysis by the Julius Kühn Institute. The institute reported that the CRISPR system had prevailed over other systems, of which 40 are currently known. This clearly demonstrates the need for work on the effects of these techniques at the molecular level, including the development of analytical methods for health and environmental impacts as well as risk assessment methods (Federal Government Response 19/24246). The FDP parliamentary group's inquiry concerned the status of implementation of the German Ethics Council's recommendations and demands regarding binding standards for germline interventions through genetic engineering techniques. The Federal Government responded that innovative genetic engineering methods offer great opportunities for progress in medicine, although there is a broad consensus among researchers that clinical applications for the hereditary modification of the human germ line do not represent a viable option for the time being (Federal Government Response 19/25507).