First gene-edited babies claimed in China
A Chinese researcher claims that he helped make the world's first
genetically edited babies twin girls born this month whose DNA
he said he altered with a powerful new tool capable of rewriting the very
blueprint of life.
If true, it would be a profound leap of science and ethics.
A US scientist said he took part in the work in China, but this
kind of gene editing is banned in the United States because the DNA changes can
pass to future generations and it risks harming other genes.
Many mainstream scientists think it's too unsafe to try, and some
denounced the Chinese report as human experimentation.
The researcher, He Jiankui of Shenzhen, said he altered embryos
for seven couples during fertility treatments, with one pregnancy resulting
thus far.
He said his goal was not to cure or prevent an inherited disease,
but to try to bestow a trait that few people naturally have an ability to
resist possible future infection with HIV,
the AIDS
virus.
He said the parents involved declined to be identified or
interviewed, and he would not say where they live or where the work was done. Read
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