Wellcome Trust Fellow Jonathan Pugh was invited to represent The Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics at the European Youth Event 2018 at the European Parliament in Strasbourg. This event brought together 9’000 or so young people from across Europe to discuss some of the challenges facing the continent, and to suggest policy proposals.
Dr Pugh spoke at a panel discussion entitled “The DNA Revolution” alongside Louison Charmoillaux (a volunteer for Greenpeace Lyon) and Adrien Pasquier (PhD student, Telethon Institute of Genetics and Medicine [TIGEM]). The panel was moderated byJonathan Hendrickx, (Freelance journalist).
A video of the panel is available here. The panel was focussed on two questions:
1. What are the ethical issues surrounding gene-editing, particularly with respect to eradicating mosquitoes?
2. Should the EU legislate on gene-editing mosquitoes?
Read Dr Pugh's blog post here.