A leading geneticist has said that scientists should draw up a clear set of dos and don’ts for those who want to perform human gene editing.
“What we need is a detailed protocol of how you would go about this,” says Robin Lovell-Badge of the Francis Crick Institute in London, who thinks some could benefit from genome editing if it was done right. “We think this is the best way forward.”
In November, the world was shocked when Chinese scientist Jiankui He announced he had created the world’s first genome-edited babies. He was trying to make individuals immune to HIV but the two girls born already may not be immune to HIV and could be far more vulnerable to flu. He’s actions have been widely condemned as unethical for this and many other reasons.
Advertisement
Widely condemned
“It’s clear he had not done enough homework,” says Lovell-Badge, who helped persuade He to reveal the details of his work in a talk at a genome-editing summit in Hong Kong.
In private, He apparently compared himself to the IVF pioneer Bob Edwards, whose work has led to the birth of millions of babies around the world. But Edwards did not work in secret, says Lovell-Badge. Edwards was open about his team’s work long before the implantation of Louis Brown, the first person born after IVF.
Yet He was convinced what he did was right and he appears to have convinced others too, including the ethics committee of the local hospital – though the hospital has since denied giving its approval.
Drawing up a clear set of rules would help those tasked with assessing the ethics of proposals, Lovell-Badge told journalists at a briefing in London on 7 January. “This has not been done. It’s something that should be done.” If this set of rules was widely accepted around the world, it could help prevent further unethical attempts, he said.
Lovell-Badge dismissed calls for a moratorium on making heritable changes with genome editing as “a waste of time”. “What is a moratorium anyway?” he asked. Germline genome editing is already against the law in many countries and there are guidelines against it in other countries including China.
According to Lovell-Badge, He – a physicist by training who worked in the US before returning to China – made millions from the sale of a company involved with DNA sequencing technology. “He is very rich.” This would explain how he was able to finance his secret project.
He is now living in an apartment in Shenzhen, China, surrounded by guards while the authorities investigate his actions. It is not clear if the guards are there to protect him or keep him there, says Lovell-Badge.
