The first gene-edited human babies were born in China in late 2018, but no new legislation has been enacted despite widespread outrage. There is a pressing societal need to address the moral and ethical issues associated with germline gene editing before more cases occur. A temporary worldwide moratorium on reproductive germline gene editing should be instituted immediately until such a time as an International Gene Editing Agency is established to develop an enforceable global regulatory framework with broad public engagement. This will, in turn, give us the opportunity to rethink the ethics of heritability in a post-gene editing world
