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发帖数: 1 | 1 The Second International Summit on Human Genome Editing, held in Hong Kong
last November, was meant to debate the pros and cons of genetically
engineering humans. Instead, the proceedings were turned upside down by the
revelation that He Jiankui, a Chinese biophysicist, had already done it. He'
d gone ahead and edited the DNA of twin girls with the powerful gene
modification tool called CRISPR. Then the Chinese scientist sprang a further
surprise on the shocked gene-editing experts. A second Chinese woman, he
said, was pregnant with yet another CRISPR baby. An early pregnancy test had
confirmed it.
That third CRISPR baby is now due to be born at any moment -- if he or she
hasn't come crying into the world already. Seven months have passed since
the Hong Kong summit, but because the pregnancy was already under way by
then, it is now at term, according to William Hurlbut, a Stanford University
physician and ethicist who was in regular communication with He starting in
2017 and is familiar with the time line of events. Hurlbut knows the day
the third baby was conceived but won't make it public, because of the risk
the information could identify the parents and child. |
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