According to the Chinese state news agency Xinhua, He Jiankui, the researcher responsible for creating the world's first genetically edited babies, was sentenced to three years in prison on charges of illegal medical practice. In November 2018, Jiankui announced to the general public that he had edited the genomes of two twin girls during the embryo stage. The actions of the scientist and his colleagues made babies immune to the immunodeficiency virus. Recently it became known about the existence of a third child with an edited genome. But how is this possible?
Where did the third child come from?
In fact, the existence of a third child with an edited genome was no secret. So, at the end of 2018, when he first talked about editing the genome of twin girls' embryos, Jiankui spoke about another embryo whose genome was edited. According to the Agence France-Presse news agency, Stanford University bioethicist William Hurlbut spoke with a Chinese scientist about editing the human genome. In his opinion, at the time of their conversation, the woman was probably 12-14 weeks pregnant. In this case, the child was supposed to be born in the summer of 2019. However, there was no news of the birth of a third child in the summer.
On December 30, Jiankui was sentenced to three years in prison and a fine of 430,000 euros for violating medical practice and conducting "an experiment in which three genetically modified children were born." Jiankui's colleagues were also convicted, receiving various terms of imprisonment (1 - 2 years, the second - 18 months with a two-year suspension).
He Jiankui talks about the birth of twins with a genetically modified genome.
It should be noted that China condemned the work of the scientist immediately after the announcement of the birth of twins, but not a word was said about the third child. Thus, the arrest of Jinkui and his colleagues confirmed the birth of the third baby with the edited genome. However, there is no detailed information about the newborn. Thus, information about gender, health status and complications during childbirth remains unknown. Moreover, no one knows whether the third child is alive or not.
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Ambiguity of the experiment
During the trial, all three researchers admitted their guilt. The goal of the scientists was to produce children with an innate immunity to HIV. Investigations have shown that Jiankui and his team forged the certificate of ethical analysis and hired eight pairs of volunteers, including men with HIV. In the course of the work, genetically modified embryos were implanted in women, two of which gave birth to these unusual children.
Be that as it may, the question of human genetic modification sooner or later had to rise before the general public. Perhaps further observation of genetically modified children will help clarify this difficult situation from all sides. Do you think Jiankui and his colleagues did the right thing?
Lyubov Sokovikova