CRISPR-baby scientist fired by university

I feel like this turns babies into technology. We might have version 1 where babies aren&#x27;t likely to get HIV or some other malady. Next round, perhaps we&#x27;ll see more height, different skin color, increased intelligence. If it&#x27;s like any other product, it appears babies would be coming out of a factory and with tiers for different features you can buy based on your purchasing power. Sort of like buying an iPhone except with babies.<p>Commercializing children doesn&#x27;t seem right, but then should the technology be held back and children be damned to suffer for the sake of keeping the status quo? Is there a just way to deal with this?

I&#x27;ve read that He self-funded the project. Anyone know if he comes from wealth or how he got the funds to run a team of scientists? Also, it&#x27;s interesting that he was a trained physicist who turned to gene modification experiments. Is CRISPR and gene editing the popular draw in academia and research? I&#x27;ve always assumed academics mainly stayed in their lane, so to speak.<p>As for the ethics, if gene editing research is inevitable and&#x2F;or simple as claimed, then perhaps it should be carried out in public universities so as to prevent glory seeking people from causing unnecessary harm. Also, perhaps anyone who carries out gene editing should be held financially liable and even criminally liable for any damage to individuals.<p>If CRISPR and gene editing lives up to its hype, it feels like we are on the cusp of a brave new world.

&gt; The investigation also found that He’s experiment ran counter to national regulations forbidding people with HIV from using assisted reproduction — an allegation reported for the first time in the Xinhua article.<p>What is the rationale behind this regulation? Is it that the baby is likely to be infected with HIV or is there some other reason?

I know this is the current title of the article, but would it possible to entitled the article &quot;He Jiankui (CRISPR-baby scientist) fired by university&quot;? While I&#x27;ll refrain from commenting on his work, he is a real person and has a name...

And yet, most people do not care.<p>The elephant in the room is, did the gene editing work? If yes, are those babies protected from HIV?<p>If yes...the world is not the same anymore.

Atrocious! Babies&#x27; interest in science should be supported, not squashed.

Given the age of the babies and CRISPR technology, how long before we find a rush of Olympic records suddenly broken by surprise athletes?

translation: the experiment didn&#x27;t work so China is disavowing him. This would have played out differently if he had succeeded I would be willing to bet.

Direct gene editing was invented about 45 years ago. I am surprised, even shocked, that no one tried this until now. CRISPR has certainly made it easier to do, but other techniques have existed since the 70s.<p>He Jiankui is being vilified now, but I wonder how history will remember him (if at all)

Does anybody really believe that China is upholding strong ethical standards here? Sure the uni dumped this guy, but I&#x27;d assume there is a large project that the government is at minimum aware of to edit genes.

I really thought China would take a lesser stance on this publically. This ordeal is surprising in a sense that they are going to have a real health crisis in the next 25 years along with population issue.