In the United Kingdom, embryos can only be edited for research purposes with strict regulatory approval. According to Xinhua, all three defendants pleaded guilty in trials that were closed to the public to protect individual privacy.Īll three defendants have reportedly also been banned from engaging in human-assisted reproductive technology services for life.Įditing the genes of embryos intended for pregnancy is banned in many countries, including the United States. Zhang was sentenced to two years in prison and fined 1 million yuan ($143,000), while Qin was given a suspended sentence of one year and six months in prison and fined 500,000 yuan ($71,600). “The nature of their behavior is serious and has constituted the crime of illegal medical practice.” “The court held that the three defendants failed to obtain a doctor’s qualification and pursued profit, deliberately violated the relevant national regulations on scientific research and medical management, crossed the bottom line of scientific and medical ethics, and rashly applied gene-editing technology to human-assisted reproductive medicine, and disrupted the medical treatment,” Xinhua reported. He worked with two medical researchers, Zhang Renli and Qin Jinzhou, to use gene-editing technology to produce babies that were resistant to HIV. Second International Summit on Human Genome EditingĬhina suspends scientists who claim to have produced first gene-edited babiesĪccording to the court’s findings, He became aware of potential economic gains from human embryo gene-editing technology in 2016, Xinhua reported. On Monday, the Shenzhen Nanshan District People’s Court sentenced He to three years behind bars and a 3 million yuan ($430,000) fine, China’s state-run news agency Xinhua reported.Ĭhinese scientist He Jiankui in a discussion with head of the Laboratory of Stem Cell Biology and Developmental Genetics at the Francis Crick Institute, Robin Lovell-Badge at the Second International Summit on Human Genome Editing in Hong Kong on November 28, 2018. Many people within the scientific community raised ethical concerns, including the level of consent He had obtained from the parents of the babies, and the level of transparency around gene editing. He later claimed that a second woman was pregnant as a result of his research.īut he was condemned by many of his peers, with the experiment labeled “monstrous,” “unethical,” and a “huge blow” to the reputation of Chinese biomedical research. He, an associate professor at the Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen, said at the time that he was “proud” of the achievement. He Jiankui shocked the world in 2018 when he announced that twin girls Lulu and Nana had been born with modified DNA to make them resistant to HIV, which he had managed using the gene-editing tool CRISPR-Cas9 before birth. A Chinese scientist who helped create the world’s first gene-edited babies has been sentenced to three years in prison.
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