After spending three years in prison, the Chinese scientist responsible for the first genetic edition of babies desi story romper the silence. “I have spent a long time thinking about what I did. To summarize in a sentence: I did it too fast,” he acknowledged. he jiankui before the newspaper The Guardian.
The expert shocked the world in 2018, announcing that had modified the genome of two twinsLulu and Nana, before inserting your embryos in the maternal womb. Later it was learned that had done the same with a third baby. Jiankui said that by editing the CCR5 gene, he would prevent the virus from HIV It will enter the cells of the babies, you will preserve immunity. It was a procedure without medical justificationwithout him consent suitable family and with risk of generating alterations with consequences as serious as cardiac pathologies, cancer and development problems.
Global condemnation was not long in coming. After being fired from his university in Shenzhen, the Chinese Justice declared him guilty of illegal medical practices and the prison sentence. the geneticist refuses to give any details of that experience. when the journalist hannah devlin asked him if he was sorry, he replied that it was a difficult question: “I need more time to think about it.”
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Although genetically modified cells have been used in adult medical treatments for years, applying the process to embryos is a matter of extremely delicatesince the changes are transferred to each cell of the body and are transmitted from generation to generation. many experts even if asking if a decision like this could ever be medically justified.
Jiankui assures that “Lulu and Nana are leading a normal life., peaceful and calm” but did not want to reveal if he continued to be involved in his follow-up. When asked about the state of health of the third babyfirst he refused to answer and then he said that he was also living a normal existence.
But how difficult were the last years for him? the chronicler insisted. Always evasive, the interviewee replied that he preferred to focus on the future: “I like the song of the Beatles Let it be let it be)”. In the near future, the babies in your lab might have a say in the matter.
BL FM
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