Chinese scientist who edited twin babies' genes jailed for 3 years
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Re: Chinese scientist who edited twin babies' genes jailed for 3 years
#2Surprise surprise, he has 3 million yuans to be fined.
Had he given more of those to the government officials and/or jurisdiction, he wouldn't even have to face the charges in the first place.
Re: Chinese scientist who edited twin babies' genes jailed for 3 years
#3It will be interesting to see if the babies grow up with any side affects from the editing. DNA is hugely complex and changing some elements of it could easily effect other parts (I imagine).
Re: Chinese scientist who edited twin babies' genes jailed for 3 years
#4Whoa, lite.cnn.io is back?
Re: Chinese scientist who edited twin babies' genes jailed for 3 years
#5I do feel this follows the same genre as what was going under Xi's hounding campaigns.
Not content with simple fraud charge, those guys always go for complete demonisation of the persona accused and self-denunciation.
Re: Chinese scientist who edited twin babies' genes jailed for 3 years
#6It will be interesting to see if the babies grow up with any side affects from the editing. DNA is hugely complex and changing some elements of it could easily effect other parts (I imagine).
Very unlikely. For a conception happening from people around 30 years, they will be passing 20 to 30 thousand DNA mutations to their offspring, and around 100-150 genetic mutations.
Statistically cas9 is barely worse than just be born to a late parent.
Re: Chinese scientist who edited twin babies' genes jailed for 3 years
#7It will be interesting to see if the babies grow up with any side affects from the editing. DNA is hugely complex and changing some elements of it could easily effect other parts (I imagine).
Very unlikely. For a conception happening from people around 30 years, they will be passing 20 to 30 thousand DNA mutations to their offspring, and around 100-150 genetic mutations. Statistically cas9 is barely worse than just be born to a late parent.
>Statistically cas9 is barely worse than just be born to a late parent.
Depends on what's being mutated. It seems likely that 1. random mutations with catastrophic outcome would be negatively selected for evolutionary, 2. Humans try to meddle with genes that may be disproportionately important.
So I'd put the risk of gene editing quite a bit higher.
Re: Chinese scientist who edited twin babies' genes jailed for 3 years
#8Surely I'm not the only one who thinks this sort of research is necessary. The sooner we are able to genetically engineer improved humans - first eliminating the incidence of genetic disease and second making overall healthier, happier and smarter people - the better the world will become.
Re: Chinese scientist who edited twin babies' genes jailed for 3 years
#9Is this punishment because he was caught or because it was on "acceptable citizens"? Yes, I'm referencing the stories coming out of the concentration camps in China and ethics related to organ harvesting, etc.
Re: Chinese scientist who edited twin babies' genes jailed for 3 years
#10Interesting. I still roll to disbelieve on China shunning human enhancement. The gains are just too great, the fruit too low hanging. Several standard deviation increases in polygenic traits are on the table, including the most important economic trait, intellectual ability: https://www.gwern.net/Embryo-selection
Given China’s almost unique state capacity to think long term, history of eugenic policies in sport, an ironically less Lysenkoist population than America, and a cultural focus on educational achievement and competition, this seems overdetermined.
In fact, animal breeders are getting very keen on iterated embryo selection. So the technology will get investment even in environments where it is illegal for humans.
We live in interesting times. Even a 2 standard deviation increase would allow a small population to produce the vast majority of genius-level intellects. 2 standard deviations is on the way low end of what iterated embryo selection offers. Should we find the causal variants, direct editing offers vastly more.
A world-wide ban on this technology is not on the table. Plan accordingly.