Is the world ready for gene editing of humans?
The world’s first gene-edited human babies were born in October 2018. Dr He Jiankui, the Chinese biophysicist responsible for genetically editing the embryos, thought the feat would bring him instant renown; instead, his actions were widely condemned.
‘WE NEED RULES TO OPTIMISE ITS ADVANTAGES AND REDUCE ITS RISKS’
Why? Like the fictional Dr Frankenstein, He conducted most of his work in secret, lied about what he was doing, did not obtain informed consent, failed to get approval from the Independent Ethics Committee, and used a. Metzl was speaking during a discussion on the ethical issues of human genome editing, hosted by the University of Cape Town’s Internal Medicine Society.
