China is preparing to introduce regulations on gene editing following the CRISPR-Baby Furore scandal

China is about to introduce a new regulation on the editing of genes in humans. A draft of the country's new civil code lists genes and human embryos in a section on the rights of the personality to be protected. Experiments on genes of adults or embryos endangering human health or violating ethical standards may therefore be considered as a violation of a person's fundamental rights.

Lawyers say that regulation would mean that anyone who manipulates genes in humans is responsible for what happens to a person. "The law clearly states that those who carry out research on human genes and embryos can not endanger human health or violate ethical principles," says Zhang Peng, criminal law specialist at Wuzi University's Beijing.

China is revising its civil code – the overall legal framework governing non-criminal disputes in areas such as marriage, inheritance and human rights – since 2002. The latest draft was submitted last month to the main legislative body of the country, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, and should be adopted next March.

The inclusion of gene editing in the latest version of the new Civil Code has however been a last-minute addition, caused by the tumult of gene editing experiments carried out last November by the biophysicist Chinese He Jiankui. He claimed to have experimented with human embryos that resulted in binoculars whose DNA was designed to make them less likely to contract HIV. The controversial experiments attracted condemnation in China and abroad and led to his dismissal at the Shenzhen Southern University of Science and Technology in January. He was also censored by the Chinese authorities, but it was not determined whether he had broken the laws of the country.

The Revised Civil Code places experiments using human genes or embryos in the part of the code that guarantees everyone's right to physical well-being, freedom, privacy and dignity. This is the first time that rules relating to genomes are included in the civil code, says Zhang.

If the new code had been in effect when he was considering his experiments, he might have deterred him, Zhang said. Although her work has made twin girls less susceptible to HIV, it is possible that she has inadvertently increased their vulnerability to other infectious diseases. But there is also a risk that his experiments will bring unexpected changes to their genomes, as is often the case in laboratory gene editing experiments, leaving twins vulnerable to genetic diseases. Under these regulations, such gene editing experiments would be illegal, Zhang said.

In March, the Ministry of Health also drafted a regulation requiring scientists to obtain approval before they could modify human embryos and impose penalties on those who break the rules.