Calls for stricter guidelines on gene-editing
228 views · Published 4 December 2018 · 1:44 · Indexed 23 September 2026
Channel: AP Archive · 2018 · News & Politics
(29 Nov 2018) AP Chief Medical Writer Marilynn Marchione says a consensus among the science community has been reached, gene-editing is not ready to be done on babies yet. A statement was issued on the third day at an international gene editing conference held Thursday in Hong Kong. The 14-member conference leader said it would be irresponsible to try it on eggs, sperm or embryos except in lab research because not At an appearance earlier in the conference, researcher, He Jiankui of Shenzhen, revealed a second pregnancy may be under way. He claims to have altered the DNA of twin girls born earlier this month to try to make them resistant to infection with the AIDS virus. Mainstream scientists have condemned the experiment, and universities and government groups are investigating. Several prominent scientists said the case showed a failure of the field to police itself and the need for stricter principles or regulations. "It really electrified the field and put a fine point on how important it is to set new standards and principals and encourage that scientists are able to police themselves in areas where regulation is a little weak," said Marchionne. A surprise on Thursday is that a number of American scientists and ethicists say they actually talked He a year or two before he did it about what was advisable. "Uniformly they say they all advised him that it would not be good to move forward and yet he, He claims that he seems to have felt that he has listened to their input and everyone was on his side," said Marchione. There is no independent confirmation of what He says he did. He was scheduled to speak again at the conference on Thursday, but he left Hong Kong Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP_Archive Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/APArchives Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/APNews/ You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/7e2398901d140a7fa7aaedcc8ac562f0
