In China, Gene-Edited Babies Are the Latest in a String of Ethical Dilemmas
BEIJING — First it was a proposal to transplant a head to a new body. Then it was the world’s first cloned primates. Now it is genetically edited babies.
Those recent scientific announcements, generating reactions that went from unease to shock, had one thing in common: All involved scientists from China.
China has set its sights on becoming a leader in science, pouring millions of dollars into research projects and luring back top Western-educated Chinese talent. The country’s scientists are accustomed to attention-grabbing headlines by their colleagues as they race to dominate their fields.
But when He Jiankui announced on Monday that he had created the world’s first genetically edited babies, Chinese scientists — like those elsewhere — denounced it as a step too far. Now many are asking whether their country’s intense focus on scientific achievement has come at the expense of ethical standards.
“He studied in the United States, why did he only do this in China?” said Wang Yifang, a medical ethics expert with the School of Medical Humanities at Peking University. “It may still be related to the fact that we have a gap in our ethical supervision — it is not very strict, and some people think it’s dispensable.”
More than 100 Chinese scientists have denounced Dr. He’s research — genetically altering embryos that he implanted in a woman who later gave birth to twin girls — as “crazy.” China’s vice minister of science and technology said Thursday that Dr. He’s scientific activities would be suspended, calling his conduct “shocking and unacceptable.”
