The case of Modified children
In China, a geneticist was sentenced for three years for changing the DNA of embryos
People's Court of Nanshan District of Shenzhen City in the south China during a public hearing on Monday sentenced geneticist He Jiankui, who announced last year the birth of the first genetically modified twin girls in history, to three years in prison and 3 million yuan fine (about 422.5 thousand dollars), follows from court documents.
In the case of illegal gene editing of human embryos, resulting in the birth of three children with edited DNA, two more scientists, Zhang Renli and Qin Jinzhou, are being held.
Zhang Renli was sentenced to two years in prison and a fine of 1 million yuan ($140.8 thousand), and Qin Jinzhou was sentenced to 1 year and 6 months in prison and a fine of 500 thousand yuan ($70.4 thousand).
In November last year, Chinese scientist He Jiankui shocked the world community with a statement about the birth of babies whose DNA was modified so that their body could resist HIV infection. He was seriously criticized both by fellow scientists and by the authorities.
The State Committee of the People's Republic of China for Health and Planned Parenthood immediately initiated an investigation into this matter. The group investigating the high-profile case reported that He Jiankui acted independently on the money he collected himself, and his experiments seriously violate the laws of the People's Republic of China, for which he will certainly be held responsible.
As the investigation was able to establish, He Jiankui, a former employee of the Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen, realized that gene editing could bring him a good profit, and in pursuit of personal fame and profit in 2016, he attracted accomplices at his own expense and used a technique whose level of safety and effectiveness are still unclear, and intentionally avoiding any supervision and control, he carried out an officially banned DNA modification experiment in the country.
In order to find participants for the experiment, He Jiankui forged the conclusion of an ethical examination and from March 2017 to November 2018 attracted 8 pairs of volunteers in which men were HIV-positive and women were not. As a result, 2 women became pregnant. By the time the story received wide resonance, only two girls were born – Lulu and Nana, and later another child was born. The fate, condition and whereabouts of the children are unknown.
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