He Jiankui, the scientist who was behind the worlds first gene-edited babies, has been sentenced to three years in prison. He is also required to pay a fine of 3 million yuan($430,000) for his actions.
Jiankui used CRISPR technology on embryos which were then implanted into women leading to the birth of twins. His scientific research involved using 22 embryos from seven couples which were then edited using CRISPR. Out of the 22 gene-edited embryos, the scientist had said that 16 had been viable and implanted 11 of these gene-edited embryos into women where one became pregnant with twins.
During the sentencing on Monday 30th December 2019, a court in Shenzen found that Jiankui and his collegues forged ethical review materials. They were also found to be in violation of national regulations on scientific research and medical management. The judge also stated that they caused harm to society due to their research. Two of his collegues were also given prison sentences and fines. They all pleaded guilty in that trial.
Gene-edited babies
After revelations that Jiankui and his collegues had used gene-edited embryos for babies in 2018, there was a widespread global controversy. Many argued that scientists had crossed ethical boundaries in search of fame and money.
Jiankui had revealed that they used edited genes to treat babies born with HIV by disabling a gene responsible for a protein that HIV binds to. His team had hoped that they would create babies who are HIV resistance. All the fathers used in the research were HIV positive.
However, this does not mean that the fathers would have passed the HIV to their babies. The report also indicated that HIV could be controlled using simple medical measures and using genetic experiments was unnecessary. The risks involved during gene editing was not worth it, and the results are mostly unpredictable.
The disgraced scientist had already lost his job at the Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzen back in January 2019 after an investigation by Health commission of China. He had also been widely denounced by the scientific community when his research came to light.
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