For some time now The New Bioethics has started each year with a themed issue. Often such issues arise from conference proceedings, symposia or research projects but sometimes they stem from serendipity. It was at the start of 2016 at an editorial meeting that this idea of an edition dedicated to genomic editing was first proposed and shortly afterwards I was at a conference at which I was speaking on the subject and found myself at the same breakfast table opposite Dr James Davison, a consultant from Great Ormond Street Hospital – arguably the leading specialist children’s hospital in the UK. When I discovered that he specialised in treating rare metabolic diseases in children, conversation inevitably turned to advances in genomic editing and my advancing the idea of his guest-editing this issue.
I am delighted that he accepted the invitation since not only has he assembled an array of highly distinguished authors for this issue, they also represent such a wide spectrum of specialities and viewpoints on the ethics of the many techniques involved that there will be something here for everyone to perhaps give them cause to reconsider whatever their moral starting point. I have myself had to reappraise my own thinking on some of these issues and reframe or certainly nuance my ethical stance. It has been a pleasure working with James on the issue and his own excellent editorial makes any further comments of mine on the papers superfluous.
Whilst in grateful mode, I would also like to thank our international editorial board members for their support to the journal. Prof Boris Yudin from the Russian Academy of Science, one of our board members, sadly died last year and the tribute to him on page 101 of this issue bears eloquent testimony to the calibre of scholars like him that we are glad to have associated with The New Bioethics.
Our newest appointment to the journal is Dr Mark Tan, a physician from Malaysia who is our first Communications Editor and he will, amongst other things, be ensuring that the journal’s presence on Twitter is much more noticeable from this year. The journal’s Twitter handle is www.twitter.com/newbioethics. We welcome Mark and trust readers will be keeping him very busy.