A Chinese biologist who stirred a storm of controversy over his move to edit the genes of human embryos did not show up at a Hong Kong seminar he had previously agreed to attend.
He Jiankui, an associate professor at the Shenzhen-based Southern University of Science and Technology, is now better known as the “father” of the world’s first baby twins with genes artificially edited so they are immune to the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).
He was absent from the opening ceremony of the second International Summit on Human Genome Editing held at the University of Hong Kong on Tuesday morning. However, the biologist is scheduled to give a talk on Wednesday.
He claimed that his team had successfully altered the CCR5 gene of twin girls born this month in China with a gene-editing technique called CRISPR, also known as the “gene scalpel.” The CCR5 protein is the main receptor in the human body of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
He has drawn a storm of criticism from around the world for his move, which has been damned as unethical and an affront to academic morality and standards.
More than 100 prominent bioscientists, including compatriots in China, signed an open letter to denounce He’s conduct and “decadence.”
Banned in the US
Gene-editing is banned in the US because the DNA changes could be passed on to future humans and it risks harming other genes as well as people’s immune systems, The Associated Press reported on Monday.
David Baltimore, chairman of the organizing committee of the Hong Kong summit and 1975 Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine, said in his opening remarks on Tuesday that scientists can only do gene-editing experiments on human embryos for a maximum of 14 days to avoid the ethical complexity and complications that could arise from any prolonged research.
But Baltimore told reporters on the sidelines of the summit that he would still allow He to speak on Wednesday, if the Chinese bioscientist attends the seminar. Baltimore said the organizing committee did not know what He would talk about.
But according to reports in the People’s Daily, He said he would display results of the twins’ blood from their umbilical cord at the Hong Kong seminar to prove the experiment was a success. He and his team would also give follow-up reports on the twin’s health for at least 18 years.
An expert with the Chinese University of Hong Kong’s Center for Bioethics told local media that He’s justification for editing human embryo genes – to prevent the spread of HIV and AIDS by “creating” humans immune to the infectious disease – was “deplorable,” as HIV/AIDS could be prevented and treated via other means proved to be effective.
Human gene-editing has been a contentious subject of research and debate since related technologies and equipment became widely available in 2015.
On Monday, China’s National Health Commission ordered an immediate investigation by local authorities in Shenzhen and Guangdong province, according to Xinhua.
The official response followed a statement from the Southern University of Science and Technology, which admitted that He’s work constituted “serious violations of academic ethics and norms.”
The ethics committee under the Shenzhen Municipal Health and Family Planning Commission also denied having received any application or issuing an approval for He’s experiment.
But it has been revealed that the medical ethics committee of a Shenzhen-based medical center gave the green light to He’s experiment in March 2017.
A defiant He said in a notice released on zhishifenzi.com on Monday that he and his team believed “ethics are on our side.”
Read: China claims world’s first gene-edited babies
Read more: Gene-edited babymaker a shareholder in seven firms
Comrades, the CCP is thinking about the future, the next step is to improve the stature of Chinese, also thinner noses, larger ‘limbs’ and rounder eyes.
Comrades, the CCP is thinking about the future, the next step is to improve the stature of Chinese, also thinner noses, larger ‘limbs’ and rounder eyes.
Man!!! How the West is on this guy’s case the minute his discovery was announced. I mean “UNETHICAL”? Man!,! What else can be more unethical than indiscriminate bombing of innocents, innocents that have no way of defending themselves. https://news.antiwar.com/2018/11/08/us-wars-in-iraq-afghanistan-and-pakistan-killed-500000-people/ . Come to think of it, I now wonder when they are going to start paint this guy as a theif and that the technology is stoken? Never ceases to amaze me how they try to discredit us in every of our accomplishments.
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Man!!! How the West is on this guy’s case the minute his discovery was announced. I mean “UNETHICAL”? Man!,! What else can be more unethical than indiscriminate bombing of innocents, innocents that have no way of defending themselves. https://news.antiwar.com/2018/11/08/us-wars-in-iraq-afghanistan-and-pakistan-killed-500000-people/ . Come to think of it, I now wonder when they are going to start paint this guy as a theif and that the technology is stoken? Never ceases to amaze me how they try to discredit us in every of our accomplishments.
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Which parents do not want a healthy intelligent child? They can condemn all they want. This is the trend. Go figure
Which parents do not want a healthy intelligent child? They can condemn all they want. This is the trend. Go figure
well said comrade, also parents want a tall strong boy, so we will roll out this gene editing technique to our ladies wont find gweilos
well said comrade, also parents want a tall strong boy, so we will roll out this gene editing technique to our ladies wont find gweilos
Agreed comrade, this advance has been pioneered by the party, we need bigger males who wont be scared of the larger gweilo weapons.
Agreed comrade, this advance has been pioneered by the party, we need bigger males who wont be scared of the larger gweilo weapons.
‘Our’ ? But you’re a Canadian, or are you so personally insecure you think that people will respect you more if they respect your original homeland more ?
Explains why so many chinese overseas support china, because they are small and physically vulnerable.
As for innocents unable to protect themselves, do you also include th Uighurs, Tibetans or the 70m that died during the cultural revolution ?
‘Our’ ? But you’re a Canadian, or are you so personally insecure you think that people will respect you more if they respect your original homeland more ?
Explains why so many chinese overseas support china, because they are small and physically vulnerable.
As for innocents unable to protect themselves, do you also include th Uighurs, Tibetans or the 70m that died during the cultural revolution ?
Winston Medved
What we really need is a “policy” which says you do a Hiroshima on us and we promise you get a Hiroshima in return from us fir the deed. This is why they have suckers and suckers like Yashy doing all of the dirty work and all of the KIA’s for them.
Winston Medved
What we really need is a “policy” which says you do a Hiroshima on us and we promise you get a Hiroshima in return from us fir the deed. This is why they have suckers and suckers like Yashy doing all of the dirty work and all of the KIA’s for them.
Yashad Rizvi
I warn you about my Chinglish haven’t I? So excuses please if I pretend a Canuck.
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Yashad Rizvi
I warn you about my Chinglish haven’t I? So excuses please if I pretend a Canuck.
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Winston Medved
Man, who can argue with the eons old effort in the fight against heart disease, cancer, ???? even mental retardation’s ☹️like Yashy ????? I mean unethical my foot! Anytime we (Oops. There goes my chinglish again, Yash.) either beat or catches up to them in the game, it becomes “UNETHICAL”, it’s inhumane, it’s stolen technology, and it’s hacked stuffs. Can’t win can we?
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Winston Medved
Man, who can argue with the eons old effort in the fight against heart disease, cancer, ???? even mental retardation’s ☹️like Yashy ????? I mean unethical my foot! Anytime we (Oops. There goes my chinglish again, Yash.) either beat or catches up to them in the game, it becomes “UNETHICAL”, it’s inhumane, it’s stolen technology, and it’s hacked stuffs. Can’t win can we?
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Winston Medved
Actually, Winston, if we get more of this https://youtu.be/CthOXLsGzHg, and I’m sure we do, then I wouldn’t mind, period, if the qweilo too get some of the ???? worn shoes ???? that we have in our midst in return as a trade. Thus is a trade war that DJT just isn’t going to win.
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Winston Medved
Actually, Winston, if we get more of this https://youtu.be/CthOXLsGzHg, and I’m sure we do, then I wouldn’t mind, period, if the qweilo too get some of the ???? worn shoes ???? that we have in our midst in return as a trade. Thus is a trade war that DJT just isn’t going to win.
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