How to protect the first ‘CRISPR babies’ prompts ethical debate

^{Photo of He Jiankui licensed for reuse under CC BY 3.0}

Two prominent bioethicists in China are calling on the government to set up a research centre dedicated to ensuring the well-being of the first children born with edited genomes. Scientists have welcomed the discussion, but many are concerned that the pair’s approach would lead to unnecessary surveillance of the children.

The proposal comes ahead of the possibly imminent release from prison of He Jiankui, the researcher who in 2018 shocked the world by announcing that he had created babies with altered genomes. He’s actions were widely condemned by scientists around the world, who called for a global moratorium on editing embryos destined for implantation. Several ethics committees have since concluded that the technology should not be used to make changes that can be passed on.

Researchers say that the latest proposal, in a document by Qiu Renzong at the Chinese Academy of Social Science in Beijing and Lei Ruipeng at the Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan, is the first to discuss how to manage the children’s...