Human genome editing in perspective

The Third International Summit on Human Genome Editing at the Crick Institute in London, UK on 6–8 March was no regular scientific meeting. For starters, it took place in the shadow of the re-emergence of He Jiankui, who announced in 2018 that he had already used genome editing on human embryos for IVF, leading to the birth of twin baby girls. He had used the Crispr gene-editing technology to alter a gene called CCR5 in the hope of conferring resistance to HIV in the infants. The work did not have the proper authorisation and He was jailed for three years by the Chinese authorities for malpractice. But he has now begun circulating again, speaking at the University of Kent at Canterbury, UK, in February, and seems unrepentant about his actions, which were universally condemned by scientists working on genome editing. At one point it looked possible that he might attend the Crick event, but he did not.

What’s more, attendees had to walk past protestors bearing placards with slogans like ‘Stop designer babies’ and ‘Never again to eugenics’. The pressure group Stop Designer Babies called the summit an ‘uncritical feast of techno-hype’ that, by advocating the legalisation of human genetic modification (HGM), resurrects ‘the spectre of eugenics’. ‘Ordinary people must come together to resist the designer baby eugenics that these technocrats want to impose upon us’, they say. ‘There is no unmet medical need for HGM so why is this Summit is even discussing it?’