How to respond to CRISPR babies
By Editorial,
Nature
| 12. 05. 2018
People like to say that science is self-correcting. Events in China last week pose a serious challenge to that reassuring platitude. How do researchers respond to the failure of medical ethics, collective responsibility and professional standards that saw an immature experimental technique used to help produce human babies?
It has not yet been independently confirmed that the Chinese genome-editing researcher He Jiankui altered the DNA of embryos using a gene-editing technique and then implanted them in a woman, as he claims. Such a step would be significant and controversial because it would make a permanent change to the germ line that could be passed on to future generations. (This distinguishes germline editing from the use of gene-editing tools as therapies that correct genetic alterations in somatic cells in blood and other tissues.)
Verification of He’s claims could be difficult, given that privacy concerns rightly protect the identity of the parents and their one-month-old twin girls. But many scientists in the field agree on two things: the relative simplicity and widespread availability of the gene-editing tool CRISPR–Cas9 mean that what He...
Related Articles
By Marianne Lamers, NEMO Kennislink [cites CGS' Katie Hasson] | 09.23.2025
Een rijtje gespreide vulva’s gaapt de bezoeker aan. Zó ziet een bevalling eruit, en zó een baarmoeder met foetus. Een zwangerschap, maar dan zonder zwangere vrouw, gestript van zorgen, gêne en pijn. De zwangerschapsmodellen en oefenbekkens, te zien in de...
By Auriane Polge, Science & Vie [cites CGS' Katie Hasson] | 09.19.2025
L’idée de pouvoir choisir certaines caractéristiques de son futur enfant a longtemps relevé de la science-fiction ou du débat éthique. Aujourd’hui, les technologies de séquençage et les algorithmes d’analyse génétique repoussent les limites de ce qui semblait encore impossible. Au croisement...
By Charmayne Allison, ABC News | 09.21.2025
It has been seven years since Chinese biophysicist He Jiankui made an announcement that shocked the world's scientists.
He had made the world's first gene-edited babies.
Through rewriting DNA in twin girls' embryos, the man who would later be dubbed...
By Natalie Ram, Anya E. R. Prince, Jessica L. Roberts, Dov Fox, and Kayte Spector-Bagdady, Science | 09.11.2025
After declaring bankruptcy in March 2025, direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic testing company 23andMe sold the data of more than 15 million people around the world to TTAM Research Institute, a nonprofit organization created by 23andMe’s founder and long-time CEO. 23andMe’s customers...