The raging controversy about whether heritable genome editing should be permitted is shaped and structured by the prevailing and countervailing narratives in circulation. In recent years, considerable shortcomings have come to characterize this discourse; it is now time to identify and correct a number of serious misunderstandings and distortions that have taken hold. This essay begins by briefly evaluating reactions to the November 2018 announcement that gene-edited babies had been born; it asserts that widespread agreement about the researcher's recklessness and dire ethical violations concealed deep fault lines among participants in the heritable genome editing debate. It goes on to consider several key omissions and misrepresentations that distort public understanding and undermine genuine debate. It suggests that the conversation must be refocused away from technical, medical, and scientific considerations toward matters of societal meanings, values, context, and consequences. It concludes with criteria for a broadly inclusive and meaningful decision-making process about whether heritable genome editing has any place in the shared and just future to which we aspire.

中文翻译：

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CRISPR 的扭曲故事：澄清对可遗传基因组编辑的误解

关于是否应该允许可遗传基因组编辑的激烈争论是由流通中的流行和反补贴叙事塑造和结构化的。近年来，这种话语出现了相当大的缺陷。现在是查明和纠正一些已经存在的严重误解和歪曲的时候了。本文首先简要评估了对 2018 年 11 月宣布基因编辑婴儿出生的反应；它断言，关于研究人员的鲁莽和严重违反道德的广泛共识掩盖了可遗传基因组编辑辩论参与者之间的深刻断层线。它继续考虑几个关键的遗漏和虚假陈述，这些遗漏和虚假陈述扭曲了公众的理解并破坏了真正的辩论。它表明对话必须从技术、医学和科学方面的考虑重新转向社会意义、价值观、背景和后果的问题。它以一个广泛包容和有意义的决策过程的标准结束，关于可遗传基因组编辑是否在我们渴望的共享和公正的未来中占有一席之地。