Suzanne Sataline, The Guardian; 'Of course it's not ethical': shock at gene-edited baby claims
"Scientists have expressed anger and doubt over a Chinese geneticist’s claim to have edited the genes of twin girls before birth, as government agencies ordered investigations into the experiment.
A global outcry started after the genetic scientist He Jiankui claimed in a video
posted on YouTube on Monday that he had used the gene-editing tool
Crispr-Cas9 to modify a particular gene in two embryos before they were
placed in their mother’s womb.
He said the genomes had been altered to disable a gene known as CCR5, blocking the pathway used by the HIV virus to enter cells.
Some scientists at the International Summit on Human Genome Editing,
which began on Tuesday in Hong Kong, said they were appalled the
scientist had announced his work without following scientific protocols,
including publishing his findings in a peer-reviewed journal. Others
cited the ethical problems raised by creating essentially enhanced humans."
Issues and developments related to ethics, information, and technologies, examined in the ethics and intellectual property graduate courses I teach at the University of Pittsburgh School of Computing and Information. My Bloomsbury book "Ethics, Information, and Technology" will be published in Summer 2025. Kip Currier, PhD, JD
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