Chinese Health Authorities Discuss If World's First Gene-Edited Baby Breaks Laws
Zhang Yushuo
DATE:  Nov 27 2018
/ SOURCE:  yicai
Chinese Health Authorities Discuss If World's First Gene-Edited Baby Breaks Laws Chinese Health Authorities Discuss If World's First Gene-Edited Baby Breaks Laws

(Yicai Global) Nov. 27 -- China has started examining whether the grounds for calling the first gene-edited babies into existence, namely the two infants called Lulu and Nana that were born in the southeastern city of Shenzhen, are legal. 

The National Health Commission has requested the Guangdong provincial Health and Family Planning Commission to launch a related investigation "in accordance with the high responsibility and scientific principles regarding people's health, as well as the law," and publish the results, the healthcare policy planner said on its official website yesterday. 

He Jiankui, an associate professor of biology at the Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen, announced that he had helped to modify the genes of two twin girls who were born in China this month, state-backed People's Daily reported on its website yesterday. The procedure sought to make them naturally resistant to the human immunodeficiency virus, also known as HIV, after birth.

The ethics committee of Shenzhen's Health and Family Planning Commission said that the researcher did not inform the bureau about the experiment, and that it will discuss the event at a meeting, China Central Television reported yesterday.

Editor: Emmi Laine 

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Keywords:   Crispr-Cas9,Gene Editing,HIV,Ethics,He Jiankui