Scientific Community Lashes Out At Scientist Who Used CRISPR To Alter Embryos, Calling Practice ‘Deeply Unethical’ And ‘Crazy’
He Jiankui of Shenzhen says he altered the embryos to change a gene so that it might provide the resulting babies with a trait few people naturally have — protection against future infection from the AIDS virus. The research is unsubstantiated, but it created an immediate and fierce outcry among scientists who have been grappling with the ethics of gene editing long before the technology even existed.