Editing genetico: nuova questione bioetica?

[Autom. eng. transl.] Controlled modifications in the genome are possible, through various techniques, since the 70s. Zinc finger nuclearis, TALE nuclease, but above all CRISPR-Cas9 are genetic editing techniques that have made it easier to perform them. The CRISPR-Cas9 system, in particular, is proving extremely advantageous in terms of accessibility, efficiency and versatility. The objectives of this contribution are: 1. to reconstruct the salient "facts" that have determined the emergence of the topic of "genetic editing"; 2. try to give an answer to a first fundamental question about the originality of the ethical dilemmas it raised with particular reference to CRISPR-Cas9. The conclusion is that, at present, the use of these new techniques does not raise new ethical questions. The only exception would seem to be given by the particular type of mutations induced by these techniques, indistinguishable in the long term from those produced by nature, a fact that is already causing some difficulty in the classification of GMOs obtained through these techniques.