A researcher genetically modifies two babies: the scientific community calls it "monstrous"

The Chinese scientist Jiankui He caused a huge scandal in the entire scientific community after announcing this week that for the first time two babies were genetically modified. These are twin sisters whose embryos were modified with the CRISPR-Cas9 technique and then implanted in the womb of the mother.

Although there is no scientific proof of what has been announced, this has not been published in any scientific journal, this researcher badures that he has To help them resist a possible future infection with HIV.

However, the scientific community is almost complete, starting with its own university, Jiankui's performance for the use of two girls as a human guinea pig and for the enormous ethical implications of his performance.

"It's Monstrous"

"If it's true, this experiment is monstrous ", Julian Savulescu, director of the Practical Ethics Center of the University of Oxford, told Reuters. " These babies are used as genetic guinea pigs ." It's "premature, dangerous and irresponsible," said Joyce Harper, a specialist in reproductive medicine at University College London, on the Nature magazine's website.

"Given the current state of technology, [esta] I am a supporter of a moratorium on the implantation of published embryos" he declared in a statement, Feng Zhang, pioneer of genetic publishing technique at the Mbadachusetts Institute of Technology (USA).

On his side, Bruno Dallapiccola geneticist and scientific director of the Hospital Bambino Gesù of Rome, badures Tempi that "the scissors used to cut and modify the DNAs are not 100% accurate.It is known that they are not cut only in the gene of interest to effect the desired correction, but also in other parts of the genome. accordingly, they can provide functional modifications of the genome whose effects are unknown and will be discovered only with time. "

According to him, what the Chinese scientist did is" madness ". "

Unwanted mutations that will be pbaded on to other generations

Indeed, many scientists claim that the CRISPR-Cas9 technique has two serious drawbacks when applied to embryos. on the one hand, may produce undesired mutations in areas of the genome other than those to be edited and on the other hand, these undesirable mutations will be transmitted to subsequent generations with unpredictable consequences.

Bruno Dallapiccola further denounces that it "is forbidden in almost all the laws of the world to induce changes transmissible to future generations as in this case. We need to think deeply and seriously. "

This Italian scientist discusses these ethical implications: " Who of us can claim the right to decide which genome is right? We are all flawed at the genetic level Each of us carries mutations in the genes of the disease. We are all healthy carriers of a few dozen disease genes. We are healthy carriers of hundreds of genetic variations that make us vulnerable to the largest and most complex diseases, many of which will occur in adult life. Thus, the utopia of being able to "create" the genetically perfect subject is neither in heaven nor on earth. "