(Beijing Comprehensive News) Chinese scientist He Jiankui announced last week that the world's first gene-edited baby immune to AIDS was born in China in a healthy manner.If you download an unhealthy baby, you will help to deal with it.
According to Sanlian Life Weekly’s report the day before yesterday, He Jiankui’s team recruited more than 50 couples to participate in the experiment through the Beijing AIDS (known as AIDS in China) rights organization Baihualin. Among them, Zheng Xiao (pseudonym) opted out before signing the consent form.
Zheng Xiao had never met He Jiankui, and he mainly communicated with one of his doctors through WeChat voice.The doctor told him that there was a possibility that the baby would be unhealthy, but the probability was very low.
The doctor said that the technology has been tested on animals, and the success rate is very high; the laboratory also has a series of measures to ensure the health of the baby, for example, some selection will be made during the fertilized egg and embryo stage, and excellent babies can be selected.Continuous physical examination will be done for the woman, insurance will be purchased for the children after they are born, and long-term follow-up will be carried out.
Obscure gene editing when communicating
When Zheng Xiao asked what to do if an unhealthy baby was born, the doctor said: Don't worry, if there is an unhealthy problem, we will help you deal with it.
The doctor also didn't tell Zheng Xiao what kind of method the experiment used.Zheng Xiao only found out in the past two days that this technology is called gene editing. He said: When talking to me, they completely blurred this part of the content.
In addition, the doctor did not disclose to Zheng Xiao that from an ethical point of view, the application of this technology on human embryos is prohibited.Zheng Xiao said: The doctor gave me the feeling that this technology brings me more benefits than the risks.
Another participant said that He Jiankui mentioned to them the problem of off-target gene editing, but the other party only said that off-target gene will only make the baby not have the ability to resist the love virus, and did not mention other risks.
He Jiankui initially did not inform Bai Hua, the person in charge of Bai Hualin, of these possible injuries.He said that he decided to cooperate with He Jiankui because He Jiankui guaranteed that the research was supported by state funds and that the subjects were completely free.
In addition, Bai Hua also revealed that He Jiankui claimed to be researching AIDS and infertility, but after reading a questionnaire on AIDS designed by He Jiankui, he found that He Jiankui did not understand AIDS. He said: NowCome to think of it, he makes me feel more like an expert in the field of genes.
