Correspondence
Chinese Academy of
Engineering calls for
actions on the birth of
gene-edited infants
At the Second International Summit
on Human Genome Editing held in
Hong Kong, China, on Nov 27­–29, 2018,
Jiankui He, the leading researcher
involved in the birth of what he claims
are gene-edited infants, described their
work using CRISPR-Cas9 mediated
genome editing of the CCR5 gene
in human germ cells and embryos.1
This claim has caused outrage among
the scientific community and society
worldwide.
The Chinese Academy of Engineering
(CAE) is a national organisation
com­ posed of elected members in
engineering science and technology.
The Division of Medicine and Health of
CAE provides national and international
advice on issues relating to health,
medicine, health policy, and biomedical
sciences. The Division and the Scientific
Ethics Committee of CAE issue the
following response to this event.2
Academically and technically,
the presented work by Jiankui He
and colleagues does not provide
a new advance in the science, and
the application of genome editing
technology in human embryos for
reproductive purposes is inappropriate.
Ethically and morally, without
solid scientific validation and full
consideration of the unpredictable
safety risks, these researchers have
not adhered to scientific integrity and
ethical norms in this clinical operation
of human germ cell genome editing
for reproductive purposes.
In terms of laws and regulations,
the work He and colleagues claim to
have done has violated China’s policies
and regulations on gene-related
research,3–5 and their clinical operations
are explicitly prohibited.
We are concerned about the
wellbeing of the infant twins involved
in this case. We urge the scientific
community and society to work
www.thelancet.com Vol 393 January 5, 2019
together to develop a comprehensive
strategy to ensure the twin babies’
privacy and to provide preventive
measurement for potential health and
social issues related to the genome
editing.
We call on all science and technology
professionals to strengthen self-
discipline of research ethics and strictly
comply with all ethical norms, laws, and
regulations in their research activities.
When new situations emerge in the
process of scientific and technological
development, we should undertake
solid, ethical research, strengthen
education in related areas, and
anticipate possible risks and challenges.
The related ethical guidelines should
also be improved to ensure responsible
research. The relevant authorities
should improve related laws and
regulations, scrutinise regulatory and
supervisory processes, advance the
relevant legislative work, and prevent
ethical misconduct.
We will pay close attention to the
ensuing investigation and its outcome,
and will provide necessary scientific and
technical advice and support.
We believe the above statement
represents the main voice of our
scientific community. With the rapid
development of increasingly powerful
genome editing technologies that
could potentially alter human genetic
make-up, we must act now and face
the challenges. It is time to formulate
relevant legislation, laws, regulations,
and guidelines, and make adaptive
amendments as necessary to establish
focused supervisory systems to avoid
any inappropriate technical uses of this
technology.
We declare no competing interests.
Boli Zhang, Zuoning Chen, Jian Yi,
Haiying Tang, *Chen Wang, on behalf
of Chinese Academy of Engineering
wangchen@cae.cn
Chinese Academy of Engineering, Beijing 100088,
China
1 China News. He Jiankui appeared in Hong Kong:
results disclosing and question answer.
China News. Nov 28, 2018. http://news.sina.
com.cn/o/2018-11-28/doc-ihmutuec4407821.
shtml (accessed Nov 29, 2018; in Chinese).
2 Chinese Academy of Engineering. Chinese
Academy of Engineering statement on the
birth of gene-edited infants. Nov 28, 2018.
http://www.cae.cn/cae/html/main/col1/2018-
11/28/20181128193924990854695_1.html
(accessed Nov 29, 2018; in Chinese).
3 Ministry of Science and Technology and
Ministry of Health. Guiding principles of ethics
for human embryonic stem cell research.
Beijing: Ministry of Science and Technology
Tek Image/Science Photo Library
and Ministry of Health, 2003 (in Chinese).
4 Ministry of Health. Ethics principles for human
assisted reproductive technology and human
sperm bank. Beijing: Ministry of Health, 2016
(in Chinese).
5 National Health and Family Planning
Commission. Ethical review measures for
biomedical research involving human beings.
Beijing: National Health and Family Planning Published Online
Commission, 2016 (in Chinese). November 30, 2018
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/
S0140-6736(18)33081-2
Gene-edited babies:
Chinese Academy of
Medical Sciences’
response and action
CRISPR-Cas9, a powerful tool for Published Online
genome editing, has provided novel November 30, 2018
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/
strategies and potential for treating S0140-6736(18)33080-0
human diseases. However, the ethical
challenges remain unsolved for many
clinical applications. As researchers
from the Chinese Academy of Medical
Sciences, the national biomedical
research institution in China, we and
our colleagues are deeply concerned
about media reports of the claim of the
first gene-edited twin babies “immune
to HIV” by Jiankui He and colleagues.1
At the Second International Summit
on Human Genome Editing in Hong
Kong, China, Jiankui He disclosed
their work on CRISPR-Cas9 mediated
genome editing of the CCR5 gene in
human germ cells and embryos.2 If their
claims are verified, we feel compelled
to state our position and concerns for
the potential scientific ramifications
and ethical impacts to our scientific
community.3
We are opposed to any clinical
operation of human embryo genome
editing for reproductive purposes in
violation of laws, regulations, and Submissions should be
made via our electronic
ethical norms in the absence of full submission system at
scientific evaluation. In the rapidly http://ees.elsevier.com/
developing area of genome editing thelancet/
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