Author: Tina Hesman Saey / Source: Science News for Students
A Chinese scientist made a surprise announcement this week. It was just as an international conference to discuss human gene-editing was to begin.
Jiankui He reported he had already done what these scientists would be talking about: He created the world’s first gene-edited babies. These twin girls are being called Lulu and Nana (not their real names).On November 28, He offered more details to the scientists attending that conference. Lulu and Nana’s parents were one of seven couples recruited from a group of patients with HIV. That’s the virus behind AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome). What’s more, at least one more woman from the group is pregnant with a gene-edited baby.
Reactions were swift. Most scientists condemned what He claimed to have done. Altering the genes in human embryos to create babies is premature, they said. It also threatens exposing the children to unneeded health risks, they added.
The announcement also points to a big new change in genetic research. This work doesn’t just repair a defect in some adult. It forever changes an individual’s DNA. Later, that edited DNA can be passed down to future generations.
He’s team is aware that the scientific community thinks that gene editing is still not safe or appropriate for use in human embryos, says Josephine Johnston. She is a lawyer and bioethicist at the Hastings Center. This research institute in Garrison, N.Y., focuses on bioethics — issues of whether certain biological research should be done, even when it’s possible to do.
The scientists involved in tweaking the babies’ genes “have knowingly violated the ethical norms surrounding this technology,” Johnston says. “You could even wonder whether they’re doing this for attention.”
But in a news interview with the Associated Press, and in a video posted November 25, He said his team had altered genes designed to cut the risk that either of the newborn twins could get HIV. This gene-tweaking was done on embryos in a lab dish. Those embryos were later implanted in the twins’ mom.
The resulting babies “came crying into this world as healthy as any other babies a few weeks ago,” He reported. Since February, this scientist has been on unpaid leave from the Southern University of Science and Technology of China. It’s located in Shenzhen.
Criticism came fast
Many researchers and ethicists expressed immediate outrage at He’s claim. They said the science behind this was too new to ensure gene editing of human babies was safe. Opponents also said the move could be seen as the first step in making “designer babies” — children edited to enhance their intelligence, athletic ability, hair color or other traits.
He rejects the term designer baby. He and his colleagues wrote a commentary that appeared online November 26 in the CRISPR Journal. “Call them ‘gene-surgery babies’ if one must or better yet ordinary people who have had surgery to save their life or prevent a disease,” the team said. But in his video, He said that he realizes his work will be controversial. He also said he’s willing to take the criticism. Some families need gene-editing to have healthy children, He said.
But he agreed that enhancing IQ or changing hair or eye color are “not things loving parents do.” He, too, maintains that those types of changes…
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