WHAT OTHERS SAY

GENE-EDITED BABIES

It HAS long BEEN A SCIENTIIC DREAM: to Inoculate people AGAINST terrible diseases before they’re born. Now a team of doctors based in China has dangled that possibility in front of us by claiming it has edited the DNA of two human embryos during in vitro fertilization. The goal of the project was to protect the two (who are now twin baby girls) from HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. If this was intended to be a gift to the world, though, it came in ugly wrapping. The principal investigator didn’t bother with such SCIENTIIC protocols As peer review AND publishing In A RESPECTED journal. Instead, he made claims about his results informally to a colleague at a conference, granted an interview to the Associated Press and posted a video on Youtube. He offered no evidence or independent corroboration that his experiment succeeded. And if indeed it did take place as described, it unquestionably crossed all sorts of ethical and safety lines. The reaction was explosive. The hospital named in documents iled By RESEARCHER HE JIANKUI says that NEITHER THE RESEARCH nor THE birth of the twins happened there. The Chinese government, though it has not outlawed genetic experimentation on human embryos, launched an investigation into the ethics of the project. More than 100 Chinese scientists issued a statement condemning He’s actions, saying his team harmed the reputation of research from their nation. Until now, research on gene editing has been restricted to faulty embryos in cases in which it was clear that children would be born with horrible illnesses. Even then, such research has been hotly debated, as it should be.