Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

Underworld

Chinese scientist claims to have created the world’s first genetically edited BABIES

Chinese scientist claims to have created the world's first genetically edited BABIES 3

A scientist claims to have helped create the world’s first genetically-modified humans during laboratory work in China.

The DNA of twin girls was altered with a powerful new tool capable of rewriting the very blueprint of life, Chinese researcher Dr He Jiankui says.

He claims the babies, named LuLu and Nana, were born a few weeks ago and have a resistance to infection with HIV, the AIDS virus.

A US scientist said he took part in the work in China, but this kind of gene editing is banned in the United States due to risks that altered DNA will warp other genes.

These potentially dangerous changes may then be passed down to future generations.

Gene editing is banned in Britain, the US many other parts of the world, and researchers said that, if Dr He’s claims are true, the ‘monstrous’ experiment was ‘not morally or ethically defensible.’

Chinese scientist claims to have created the world's first genetically edited BABIES 4
He Jiankui speaks during an interview at a laboratory in Shenzhen in southern China’s Guangdong province. The Chinese scientist claims he helped make world’s first genetically edited babies: Twin girls whose DNA he claims to have altered

Dr Jiankui, of the Southern University of Science and Technology, in 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 infection with HIV.

He said the parents involved declined to be identified or interviewed, and would not say where they live or where the work was done.

There is no independent confirmation of Dr He’s claim, and it has not been published in a journal, where it would be vetted by other experts.

Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.

He announced the research Monday in Hong Kong to an organiser of an international conference on gene editing that is set to begin Tuesday, and earlier in exclusive interviews with The Associated Press.

‘I feel a strong responsibility that it’s not just to make a first, but also make it an example,’ he told the AP.

‘Society will decide what to do next’ in terms of allowing or forbidding such science.

Some scientists were astounded to hear of the claim and strongly condemned it.

It’s ‘unconscionable … an experiment on human beings that is not morally or ethically defensible,’ said Dr Kiran Musunuru, a University of Pennsylvania gene editing expert and editor of a genetics journal.

‘This is far too premature,’ said Dr Eric Topol, who heads the Scripps Research Translational Institute in California. ‘We’re dealing with the operating instructions of a human being. It’s a big deal.’

‘If true, this experiment is monstrous,’ said Professor Julian Savulescu, Director of the University of Oxford’s Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics.

‘These healthy babies are being used as genetic guinea pigs. This is genetic Russian Roulette.’

However, one famed geneticist, Harvard University’s Professor George Church, defended attempting gene editing for HIV, which he called ‘a major and growing public health threat.’

Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.

‘I think this is justifiable,’ Professor Church said of that goal.

Continue Reading: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/

Comments

You May Also Like

Apocalypse & Armageddon

The escalating tensions between the United States and China have the potential to serve as a catalyst for a global conflict involving the world’s...

Science & Technology

Recent reports from Taiwanese sources and Chinese opposition representatives indicate the emergence of a new virus in China, overwhelming hospitals. The virus, named Human...

Aliens & UFO's

Recently, information surfaced suggesting that a group of Chinese astronomers have found nearly conclusive evidence of extraterrestrial life, and that the Chinese government is...

Apocalypse & Armageddon

We are standing on the brink of the unimaginable, and yet, many remain unaware. We have arrived at a pivotal moment in history, one...

Apocalypse & Armageddon

If China were to target Taiwan’s submarine communication cables, it could potentially have global repercussions. The war in Ukraine and the conflicts in the...

Planet Earth

The grueling 996 work schedule, so named because it requires employees to work from 9am to 9pm, six days a week, has persisted at...

Underworld

The new appointment to the post of Minister of Defense of the People’s Republic of China is truly epoch-making. For the first time in the...

Fact or fiction

Many holy elders spoke in their prophecies about a whole series of upcoming wars. Some of them warned that another world conflict could flare up...

Advertisement