Researcher slammed after claiming to have a baby modified by a gene

A Chinese researcher provoked an international outcry after announcing that he had helped create the first genetically modified babies.

He says the twins are born after they have modified their DNA to make them resistant to HIV infection.

No one has been able to independently check whether what he says is true, but he has been widely criticized by the scientific world.

Professor Jeanne Snelling, professor of bioethics at Otago University, believes that the consensus of the scientific community is that it is too early to start experiments on people's genes.

But she adds that if, or when, editing genes on people is acceptable, it is unlikely to be used for treatable diseases such as HIV.

"If someone was suffering from a serious disorder, we could try the technology to reduce the risk that a child would have, but in this situation, nothing allowed him to. expose these embryos to the risks of what it would be good to have. "

Snelling says that science will always act faster than ethics, but some lines are just too dangerous to be crossed.

"I think the fact that he was removed from office and that there was a backlash would be a deterrent to anyone wanting to be the first to get out of the fence."

LISTENING TO JEANNE SNELLING TALKING WITH LARRY WILLIAMS ABOVE