Deny, Denounce, Debate: China Gene-Edited Babies Awaken Genie In The Bottle

 
• By Brian Yang
  
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With the birth of the world's first gene-edited babies, Chinese researchers again step into the epicenter of a controversy between the use of cutting-edge technology and calls for the tightening of ethical oversight of such research.

He Jiankui of China Southern University of Science and Technology creates first gene-edited babies • Source: China SUST website

Medical researchers in Southern China have apparently inherited a culture of daring to challenge global norms. In the latest case, Associate Professor He Jiankui of China Southern University of Science and Technology and his team announced on Nov. 26 ahead of a Summit on Human Genome Editing in Hong Kong that they had successfully created gene-edited baby twins, in which the CCR5 gene that allows HIV infections at the cellular level had been removed.

The change could potentially confer some degree of resistance to HIV infection of the genetically modified babies, although some experts...

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