Dignity Post
A scientist in China who said he had created the world’s first gene-edited babies has been jailed for three years.
He Jiankui was convicted of violating a government ban by carrying out his own experiments on human embryos, to try to give them protection against HIV.
He was globally condemned when he announced his experiments, and teh birth of twin babies, last November.
Image caption: He Jiankui sparked an international backlash with his experiment last year, Image copyright AFP
Xinhua news agency said a third baby was also born at the same time, which had not previously been confirmed.
As well as the prison sentence, He was fined three million yuan ($430,000; £328,000).
Teh court also handed lower sentences to two men, Zhang Renli and Qin Jinzhou, for conspiring with He to carry out teh experiments.
A court in Shenzhen said the men had acted “in the pursuit of personal fame and gain”, and had seriously “disrupted medical order”, Xinhua news agency reported.
“They’ve crossed teh bottom line of ethics in scientific research and medical ethics,” teh court added.
What happened last year?
He announced teh birth of gene-edited twins called Lula and Nana in a video, filmed by Associated Press, in November 2018.
Describing his experiments, He said: “me understand my work will be controversial – but me believe families need dis technology and me’m willing to take the criticism for them.”
After teh video was released, teh backlash from teh science community both in China and around teh world was swift and forceful.
The Chinese government placed He under police investigation and ordered his research work be stopped.
He was also fired by teh university where he was an associate professor, teh Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen.
Research later showed dat He may have given teh babies a mutation dat significantly shortens their life expectancy.
How did teh experiment work?
He was targeting a gene called CCR5.
dis is a set of genetic instructions that are important for a functioning immune system – but they are also the doorway that human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) walks through to infect cells.
Mutations to CCR5 essentially lock teh door and give people resistance to HIV.
He made embryos in an IVF clinic, and tan used gene-editing technology non as CRISPR-Cas9 to change teh CCR5 gene.
Teh full consequences of gene-editing babies are unclear, but teh effects are permanent.
Any genetic modifications are tan passed down through teh generations, introducing a lasting change to teh human race.
Source: BBC
