Chinese scientist who edited genes of twin babies is jailed for 3 years
Chinese scientist who edited genes of twin babies is jailed for
3 years
(CNN) A Chinese scientist who helped create the
world's first gene-edited babies has been sentenced to three years in prison.
He Jiankui shocked the world
in 2018 when he announced that twin girls Lulu and Nana had been born with
modified DNA to make them resistant to HIV, which he had managed using the
gene-editing tool CRISPR-Cas9 before birth.
He, an associate professor at
the Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen, said at the time
that he was "proud" of the achievement. He later claimed that a
second woman was pregnant as a result of his research.
But he was condemned by many
of his peers, with the experiment labeled "monstrous,"
"unethical," and a "huge blow" to the reputation of Chinese
biomedical research. Many people within the scientific community raised ethical
concerns, including the level of consent He had obtained from the parents of
the babies, and the level of transparency around gene editing.
On Monday, the Shenzhen
Nanshan District People's Court sentenced He to three years behind bars and a 3
million yuan ($430,000) fine, China's state-run news agency Xinhua reported.
According to the court's
findings, He became aware of potential economic gains from human embryo
gene-editing technology in 2016, Xinhua reported. He worked with two medical
researchers, Zhang Renli and Qin Jinzhou, to use gene-editing technology to
produce babies that were resistant to HIV.
"The court held that the
three defendants failed to obtain a doctor's qualification and pursued profit,
deliberately violated the relevant national regulations on scientific research
and medical management, crossed the bottom line of scientific and medical
ethics, and rashly applied gene-editing technology to human-assisted
reproductive medicine, and disrupted the medical treatment," Xinhua
reported. "The nature of their behavior is serious and has constituted the
crime of illegal medical practice."
Zhang was sentenced to two
years in prison and fined 1 million yuan ($143,000), while Qin was given a
suspended sentence of one year and six months in prison and fined 500,000 yuan
($71,600). According to Xinhua, all three defendants pleaded guilty in trials
that were closed to the public to protect individual privacy.
All three defendants have
reportedly also been banned from engaging in human-assisted reproductive
technology services for life.
Editing the genes of embryos
intended for pregnancy is banned in many countries, including the United
States. In the United Kingdom, embryos can only be edited for research purposes
with strict regulatory approval. It is unknown whether the procedure is safe
or, if used in pregnancy, whether it can have unintended consequences for the
babies later in life or for future generations.
In January this year,
investigators from Guangdong Province Health Commission said that He had conducted the work "in pursuit of
personal fame and fortune, with self-raised funds and deliberate evasion of
supervision and private recruitment of related personnel." The authorities
also said He forged ethical review documents and blood tests to circumvent a
ban on assisted reproduction for HIV-positive patients.
China has invested heavily in
gene-editing technology, with the government bankrolling research into a number
of world "firsts," including the first use of the gene-editing tool
CRISPR-Cas9 in humans in 2016 and the first reported use of gene editing
technology to modify nonviable human embryos in 2015.
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