China confirms gene-edited babies

Chinese officials have confirmed reports that a doctor facilitated the birth of two children whose genes had been edited in order to make them resistant to Aids.

Dr He Jiankui (pictured above) reportedly organised and handled funding for the experiment in violation of Chinese national guidelines, leaving him open to prosecution.

According to investigators, He had “organised a project team that included foreign staff, which intentionally avoided surveillance and used technology of uncertain safety and effectiveness to perform human embryo gene-editing activity with the purpose of reproduction, which is officially banned in the country”.

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“This behaviour seriously violates ethics and the integrity of scientific research, is in serious violation of relevant national regulations and creates a pernicious influence at home and abroad,” the investigators’ report said.

He’s experiment has so far resulted in the birth of twins, nicknamed “Lulu” and “Nana”, and the South China Morning Post reports that “another woman is still carrying a gene-edited foetus”. Five other attempts to produce a foetus were unsuccessful.

Earlier this month, Sky News reported that He was being “guarded at a state-owned apartment in Shenzhen”, and was facing charges of corruption and bribery, both of which carry the death penalty in China.

NBC News says that He “rocked an international conference with the claim that he had helped make the world's first gene-edited babies” in 2017, when he revealed he had used a gene-editing tool called CRISPR.

He reportedly used CRISPR despite a clear scientific consensus that producing gene-edited children should not be attempted until the ramifications of the procedure were properly understood.