Out of jail, is the CRISPR-baby scandal scientist at it again?
By Natasha Mitchell,
ABC [feat. CGS' Katie Hasson]
| 03. 17. 2023
Chinese scientist Dr Jiankui He flouted the law and bioethics basics to create the world's first CRISPR gene edited babies. Now out of jail, he's on Twitter recruiting patients and raising funds for more trials, this time in adults not embryos. An unhelpful distraction or a cautionary lesson for the world's scientists? Dr Joy Zhang has an extraordinary insider view after a recent encounter with Dr He. Dr Katie Hasson is part of a global Coalition to Stop Designer Babies, and runs a Missing Voices initiative to diversify who gets a say about heritable genome editing.
Listen to the full episode at the link!
Guests:
Dr Joy Zhang
Founding director, Centre for Global Science and Epistemic Justice
University of Kent, UK
Co-author, The Elephant and the Dragon in Contemporary Life Sciences (Manchester University Press, 2022)
Dr Katie Hasson
Associate Director
Center for Genetics and Society, USA
Further information:
Looking Back into the Future: CRISPR and Social Values (University of Kent report from meeting with Dr He Jiankui in February 2023)
The Third International Summit on Human Gene Editing, London, 2023 (livestream videos via the...
Related Articles
By Laura Hughes, Financial Times | 05.20.2026
Sophie and her husband are set to spend more than £100,000 in travel and medical bills as they fly between England and the US in their bid to have another child.
The couple are undergoing IVF treatment in New York...
By Gina Kolata, The New York Times | 05.25.2026
In a small, preliminary study, an experimental gene-editing treatment dramatically lowered cholesterol levels, perhaps permanently, after just one infusion, scientists reported on Monday.
If confirmed in larger studies, researchers hope the findings may lead to a one-and-done way to prevent...
By Nanette Elster, Kayhan Parsi, and Art Caplan, The American Journal of Bioethics | 05.06.2026
“Better babies.” “Fitter families.” “Survival of the fittest.” “Three generations of imbeciles are enough.” These phrases are not merely historical reminders of the United States’ regrettable eugenic past but are appearing in an increasingly eugenic present. Eugenics may have seemed...
By Rob Stein, NPR [cites CGS' Katie Hasson] | 05.06.2026
Justin Schleede reaches onto a black lab bench to pick up a tray of small plastic tubes.
"These are saliva samples as well as blood," says Schleede, a geneticist who runs Herasight Inc.'s lab in Morrisville, N.C. "We also...