The edited gene is for CCR5, which currently doesn’t have known function, but is the entry point for HIV. So editing for prophylaxis. This was probably done because if there aren’t a ton of loss of function beneficial traits, and probably with the main desire to be first. Except, if the reports are true, this is not just an experiment but a person (or people). I guess the main desire is to normalize editing. Brave new world I guess, whether we like it or not.
There have been a good deal of medical and technological breakthroughs over the last couple decades. Reusable rockets, VR, machine learning, etc. This is the first article I have read that has made me realize that the future is right here, right now and there is a very high probability that things are now going to change rapidly.<p>One thing to consider is that via crispr and stem cell treatments, genetic changes can be affected in adults as well, you just need to wait for the kinks to be worked out now and apply large sums of money. Our definition of 'haves and have nots' is potentially going to change in ways we have never imagined.
> <i>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.</i><p>This is 100% correct.<p>(COI: Kiran was my postdoc while I was a student in the lab a decade ago.)
This sounds super sketchy:<p>> 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.<p>> There is no independent confirmation of He's claim, and it has not been published in a journal, where it would be vetted by other experts. He revealed it Monday in Hong Kong to one of the organizers of an international conference on gene editing that is set to begin Tuesday, and earlier in exclusive interviews with The Associated Press.<p>To be honest, _if this is true_ it sounds like he modified them without the parents knowledge or consent. Usually, I'm super skeptical of any "research" coming out of China. However, I've suspected that China has been doing this for a while anyway (without sharing it). So I'm left with three possibilities in my mind:<p>1. Government is releasing this to see how the world will react<p>2. The doctor excited to share their work, shared it - but did the work without the parents consent<p>3. Parents did this knowingly and in a controlled way<p>Of those options I'm betting #2 followed by #1. Highly doubt even if the parents consented this was entered into with the knowledge of the risks. Seriously if they are using Cas9 who knows what else could go wrong.
And we are here, a brave new world. For years I heard and read that we would never need to worry about scientists editing the DNA of a human embryo that would be brought to term. The argument emphasized the fact that professional ethics would prevent it. Well, ethics change and not all professionals will follow them.<p>As a programmer, I know how hard it is to modify a ball of code without having unexpected consequences. We barely know how the human genome functions. I hope we don't do too much damage.
This is quite interesting. There is a certain very small percentage of the world's population that is immune to the HIV virus. These people's T-cells have the CD4 receptor, but not the CCR5 receptor. The HIV virus needs both these receptors to successfully affect the host's cells. The absence of the CCR5 receptor still allows the person's T cells to function normally, so if this works, it can pave the way to creating offspring who are immune to HIV
This is how China is going to take the lead. They will start breeding disease-resistant, stronger and smarter humans, and the west will take the moral high ground, tweet about how evil China is on their new phones, and fall behind.<p>Our ethics will be our downfall.
Hear it from He Jiankui himself: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=th0vnOmFltc" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=th0vnOmFltc</a>
a giant leap<p>i had thought this wouldnt happen for another few decades<p>this is bad news for tibetans since their high altitude gene is known even the andes high alt adaptations are being discovered which is really one of the closest things to a genetic super ability you can get<p>so it will only be a few decades more until this last barrier to han colonization of tibet falls<p>deep sea diving is another such genetic ability recently investigated
It already causes quite a debate on Chinese internet as well.<p>People are genuinely concerned about the unknown effects on the babies, and questioning the authors and the hospital's motivation of applying such techniques to human this early without fully understanding its consequences.
Here is a controversial article published in 2013 by an evolutionary psychologist that everyone should give some thoughts on:<p>Disclaimers: I do not have the expertise to evaluate its veracity but if true it will affect everyone in the world in some important ways within a few decades (the effects might already start to appear as we see how fast China has developed technologically. Yes, technology transfer is clearly a factor but few developing nations can absorb and adopt advanced technologies so rapidly). I also have not pondered deeply enough to have a strong position on the complicated ethical implications alluded to in the article and expressed with concerns elsewhere.<p><a href="https://www.edge.org/response-detail/23838" rel="nofollow">https://www.edge.org/response-detail/23838</a><p>> ...<p>> Deng also encouraged assortative mating through promoting urbanization and higher education, so bright, hard-working young people could meet each other more easily, increasing the proportion of children who would be at the upper extremes of intelligence and conscientiousness. ...<p>> But crucially, Comprehensive National Power also includes "biopower": creating the world's highest-quality human capital in terms of the Chinese population's genes, health, and education ...<p>> The BGI Cognitive Genomics Project is currently doing whole-genome sequencing of 1,000 very-high-IQ people around the world, hunting for sets of sets of IQ-predicting alleles. I know because I recently contributed my DNA to the project, not fully understanding the implications. These IQ gene-sets will be found eventually—but will probably be used mostly in China, for China. Potentially, the results would allow all Chinese couples to maximize the intelligence of their offspring by selecting among their own fertilized eggs for the one or two that include the highest likelihood of the highest intelligence. Given the Mendelian genetic lottery, the kids produced by any one couple typically differ by 5 to 15 IQ points. So this method of "preimplantation embryo selection" might allow IQ within every Chinese family to increase by 5 to 15 IQ points per generation. After a couple of generations, it would be game over for Western global competitiveness. ...<p>> My real worry is the Western response. The most likely response, given Euro-American ideological biases, would be a bioethical panic that leads to criticism of Chinese population policy with the same self-righteous hypocrisy that we have shown in criticizing various Chinese socio-cultural policies. But the global stakes are too high for us to act that stupidly and short-sightedly. A more mature response would be based on mutual civilizational respect, asking—what can we learn from what the Chinese are doing, how can we help them, and how can they help us to keep up as they create their brave new world?
<a href="https://apnews.com/4997bb7aa36c45449b488e19ac83e86d" rel="nofollow">https://apnews.com/4997bb7aa36c45449b488e19ac83e86d</a><p>Has more info
The Shenzhen HarMoniCare Women & Children’s Hospital, the medical ethics committee of which gave a permit to this, was one of the so-called Putian-systems, a medical network established by hundreds of people from Putian, Fujian who earned their first bucket of gold by selling “home made remedies and fake medicine at high prices”.<p><a href="https://m.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/1940668/baidu-scandal-spotlight-china-military-hospitals" rel="nofollow">https://m.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/1940...</a><p>EDIT:<p>Shenzhen Medical Ethics Expert Committee said that the trial was not reported to before the trial.<p><a href="https://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=1&nv=1&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=auto&sp=nmt4&tl=en&u=http://www.bjnews.com.cn/news/2018/11/26/524939.html&xid=17259,15700022,15700124,15700126,15700149,15700186,15700191,15700201&usg=ALkJrhiDehC95dc3xPQZBlTpe4sNP3u-Bg" rel="nofollow">https://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=1&...</a>
in vitro sex selection (mostly for male children) has been going on for a long time, seems the next logical step:<p><a href="https://www.google.com/search?&q=in+vitro+sex+selection+china&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8" rel="nofollow">https://www.google.com/search?&q=in+vitro+sex+selection+chin...</a>
This will be a great tool to help game the social score.<p>More intelligence + less risk-taking + more respect for authority = a high-score child sure to get into the top University and have the freedom to travel there.<p>/s
Looking at how addictive our interactions with technology have become this seems concerning. A future where we can all exist and never look up or leave our thought bubbles could have a dramatic impact on humanity and motivations.
Moral frontiers aside, current gene tech is still not where we'd like it to be in order to pull of these sorts of things and know we haven't done harm. Side edits are a big problem with CRISPR-Cas9.
For the surely upcoming discussion about pros and cons of genetic editing in humans, Kurzgesagt has a basic overview of the space, if you can spare some 15 minutes with your morning coffee.<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAhjPd4uNFY" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAhjPd4uNFY</a><p>(not affiliated, just love their videos)
While the western world is whining about irrelevant ethics the Chinese will eventually eradicate countless diseases, engineer the perfect superhuman and take control of their evolution. Transhumanism is here and happening right now. We are committing a crime against our future generations if we decide not to participate in it. We actively decide against prosperity and advancement. We are luddites.<p>Complacent western weakness at its best.