China Halts Work by Scientist Who Says He Edited Babies’ Genes

The newspaper article ‘China Halts Work by Scientist Who Says He Edited Babies’ Genes’ by Sui-Lee Wee discusses a gene-editing technique that was carried out by a Chinese scientist He Jiankui. The gene editing was carried out with the help of CRISPR, a method used by a scientist for genome curing disease (Ledford, 2015).

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https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/29/science/gene-editing-babies-china.html
The newspaper article ‘China Halts Work by Scientist Who Says He Edited Babies’
Genes’ by Sui-Lee Wee discusses a gene-editing technique that was carried out by a Chinese
scientist He Jiankui. The gene editing was carried out with the help of CRISPR, a method used
by a scientist for genome curing disease (Ledford, 2015). The genetically manipulated embryo
was introduced inside a womb of a woman, who gave birth of twin girls at the end of November.
Despite the rise of controversies, Jiankui confessed to being proud of the work. China’s vice
minister Xu Nanping shares concern about the violation of laws and regulations that have been
done while conducting this experiment. Hormonal tests have confirmed the pregnancy of the
women, but it’s at an early stage which can turn into a chemical pregnancy leading it to
miscarriage. Scientists and researcher have deemed Dr He’s experiment and claimed it as
unethical.
It is been stated that many people has a twisted when it comes to ethics and laws. For
them what law does not prohibit are morally permissible and which it does are ethically
impermissible. Ethics and law are different things. People could not oppose any laws ethically if
it were the same thing (Erhard, Jensen & Zaffron, 2016). Each religion has their approach
towards ethical and moral issues. To understand how the perspective of religious moralities
work, one needs first to learn what the differences look like (Jung, 2017). According to Insole
(2015), in the world, it is next to impossible to think anything or even beyond which could be
considered as good without ant limitation. The author discusses about the concepts of Kant who
stated that intentions do matter whether it is good or bad. This course helps us understanding in
what ways the undertaken article review is right or wrong. The overview of these courses, when
compared with Dr He’s work, tells how unethical and disturbing his practice is, breaking the

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laws of natural selection and moving the beliefs of religions. The course tells about the first line
of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that reads: “Whereas recognition of the inherent
dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the
foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world.”
The work of Dr He can be considered as a medical marvel. The edited babies were
designed genetically to resist HIV. The scientist disabled CCR5 which is a disabled gene that
HIV exploits. Dr Kiran Musunuru shares concern on the research that Dr He has not balanced
potential benefits with potential risks, where the chances are higher than potentials, it is
considered as unethical. There are still open questions that remain unanswered. It could be
thought that as CRISPR was used at an early stage where the embryo only consists one or two
cells, the alternation may have passed the germ line cell which divides egg doe sperms. This
could lead to severe consequences, manipulating the genome of the future generation,
permanently damaging that bloodline. (Gyngell, Douglas & Savulescu, 2017). The question
remains about the possibility of designer babies in the future, where parents can design the foetus
according to their will. Thus, this method can destroy the natural selection process which is
wrong in every possible way.

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References
Erhard, W., Jensen, M. C., & Zaffron, S. (2016). Integrity: A Positive Model that
Incorporates the Normative Phenomena of Morality, Ethics, and Legality--Abridged (English
Language Version).
Gyngell, C., Douglas, T., & Savulescu, J. (2017). The ethics of germline gene
editing. Journal of applied philosophy, 34(4), 498-513.
Insole, C. J. (2015). A Thomistic Reading of Kant's Groundwork of the Metaphysics of
Morals: Searching for the Unconditioned. Modern Theology, 31(2), 284-311.
Jung, K. (2017). Normativity in Comparative Religious Ethics. Journal of Religious
Ethics, 45(4), 642-665.
Ledford, H. (2015). CRISPR, the disruptor. Nature News, 522(7554), 20.