From Gene-Edited Embryos to Covid: China Faces Regulatory and Ethical Challenges
By Yuting Zhu and Jonathan D. Moreno,
The Hastings Center
| 07. 28. 2022
In early April, He Jiankui, the Chinese scientist who used gene-editing technology on human embryos born in 2018, was released from his three-year prison sentence, imposed after a Shenzhen District Court convicted him of “illegal medical practice.” He and two accomplices were banned from conducting any work related to assisted reproductive technology, applying for administrative permits for research on human genetic resources, and from applying for research funds.
The He Jiankui affair and, little more than a year later, the Covid pandemic have focused attention in China on ethical governance of research and medical practice. Over the last two years, China has updated some regulations on human genetic engineering and assisted reproduction and established a national committee to guide and supervise bioethics nationwide. But there are legal gaps in some of the regulations and tension between competing values: the desire to encourage new research and to potentially inhibit it by imposing stricter ethics regulations.
An example of this tension came out in public expression over He Jiankui. Ever since his arrest there have been occasional comments on Chinese social media...
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The Center for Genetics and Society is delighted to recommend the current edition of GMWatch Review – Number 589. UK-based GMWatch, a long-standing ally, was founded in 1998 by Jonathan Matthews as an independent organization seeking to counter the enormous corporate political power and propaganda of the GMO industry and its supporters. Matthews and Claire Robinson are its directors and managing editors.
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