[The suspension follows international condemnation from scientists who maintain that Dr. He’s conduct was unethical. They say there are serious unanswered questions about the safety of embryo editing and a need to make sure that such research is conducted in a transparent, monitored way so the technology is not misused.]
By
Sui-Lee Wee
 |
|
He
Jiankui, who claims to have created the world’s first genetically edited
babies,
defended
his work at a conference in Hong Kong on Wednesday. Credit
Anthony
Wallace/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
|
BEIJING
— China said on Thursday
that it had suspended the work of a scientist who claims to have created the
world’s first genetically edited babies, saying his conduct appeared to be
unethical and in violation of Chinese law.
The scientist, He Jiankui, announced on
Monday that he had used the gene-editing technique Crispr to alter embryos,
which he implanted in the womb of a woman who gave birth to twin girls this
month. At an international conference on Wednesday, he asserted that he was
proud of what he had done.
Xu Nanping, China’s vice minister of science
and technology, said Dr. He’s work was still being investigated. But based on
news reports, he said, Dr. He appeared to have “blatantly violated China’s
relevant laws and regulations” and broken “the bottom line of morality and
ethics that the academic community adheres to,” the state broadcaster China
Central Television reported on Thursday.
“It is shocking and unacceptable,” Mr. Xu was
quoted as saying. “We are resolutely opposed to it.”
The suspension follows international
condemnation from scientists who maintain that Dr. He’s conduct was unethical.
They say there are serious unanswered questions about the safety of embryo
editing and a need to make sure that such research is conducted in a
transparent, monitored way so the technology is not misused.
Mr. Xu had said earlier that Chinese
regulations issued in 2003 permitted gene-editing experiments on embryos for
research purposes, but only if they remained viable for no more than 14 days.
On Monday, a group of 122 Chinese scientists
issued a statement calling Dr. He’s actions “crazy” and his claims “a huge blow
to the global reputation and development of Chinese science.”
At the Second International Summit on Human
Genome Editing in Hong Kong on Wednesday, Dr. He acknowledged that he had not
made his university in China aware of the research he was doing. He said he had
initially paid for the research himself, then later from his university
funding.
Dr. He pushed back against suggestions that
he had been secretive about his work, saying that he had presented preliminary
aspects of it at conferences and consulted with scientists in the United States
and elsewhere. He said he had submitted his research to a scientific journal
for review and had not expected to be presenting it at the conference.
One of many areas of confusion about Dr. He’s
research was the status of a possible pregnancy of a second woman he said he
had implanted with an edited embryo. On Wednesday, under questioning from
scientists after his talk, Dr. He said there had been a second implantation in
an early stage.
When asked by Robin Lovell-Badge, a professor
of genetics and embryology at the Francis Crick Institute in London, whether by
early stage Dr. He meant a “chemical pregnancy” or early miscarriage, Dr. He
said “yes.”
On Thursday, however, Dr. Lovell-Badge told
reporters that he could not be sure that Dr. He understood that “chemical
pregnancy” referred to a pregnancy that was lost.
“He doesn’t necessarily know what he’s
talking about,” Dr. Lovell-Badge said. “We don’t know. He said he confirmed
that essentially they’d done the hormone test for whether or not the woman was
pregnant. And the answer is yes. But it’s very early, so it could turn into a
chemical pregnancy meaning there was a miscarriage. Many embryos fail to
survive.”
Dr. He had been scheduled to speak again at
the conference on Thursday, but his talk was canceled.
Dr. Robin Lovell-Badge, who moderated the
Wednesday session, said in an email that “it would have been difficult to have
sufficient security” for a second talk. He said that Dr. He had decided not to
attend after he was told about the security arrangements.
Dr. Lovell-Badge said Thursday that the
organizers had felt it was “important to give Dr. He a platform to present what
he had done.”
“We therefore do not regret at all allowing
him to present yesterday, but giving him a second opportunity today might also
have been viewed as support for him,” he said. “This is another reason the
committee did not want him back today.”
