China AIDS group ‘really regrets’ role in gene-editing
BEIJING: The head of a Chinese AIDS support group expressed deep regret yesterday for helping a scientist recruit participants for a controversial experiment claiming to have created the world’s first genetically- edited babies.
The medical trial, which was led by Chinese scientist He Jiankui, purports to have successfully altered the DNA of twin girls, whose father is HIV- positive, to prevent them from contracting the virus.
The founder of the Baihualin ( BHL) China League, who calls himself ‘ Bai Hua’, reportedly introduced 50 families to He’s team for clinical trials.
The AIDS support group operates various online chat groups, including some dedicated to married couples affected by the disease — the perfect source for He’s experiment.
“I admit that I really regret this incident, and am also very worried about these families and their children,” Bai wrote in statement on BHL’s blog yesterday.
“I really want to say that I was tricked, but I don’t want to push away responsibility either,” Bai added.
He’s experiment has prompted widespread condemnation from the scientific community in China and abroad, as well as a harsh backlash from the Chinese government.
On Thursday, the Chinese ministry of science and technology stressed its opposition to the geneediting baby experiment, and demanded a halt to the ‘scientific activities of relevant personnel’.
The Chinese scientist’s claims were ‘shocking and unacceptable’ and breached ‘ the bottom line of morality and ethics that the academic community adheres to’, vice minister Xu Nanping told state broadcaster CCTV, warning that it may have broken the law.
China’s National Health Commission has ordered an investigation into He’s experiment.
The public outcry over He’s experiment has drawn attention to the growing HIV/AIDS epidemic in China, which has seen a drastic surge in new cases in recent years.
Last week, citing remarks at a national health commission conference, official news agency Xinhua reported that there were an estimated 1.25 million HIVpositive people in China.
According to statistics from UNAIDS, an international organisation dedicated to AIDS advocacy, a total of 36.9 million people around the world were living with HIV in 2017.
In the 1990s, rural parts of China — particularly the central province of Henan — endured the country’s most debilitating AIDS epidemic. – AFP