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This sounds super sketchy: > He said the parents involved declined to be identified or interviewed, and he would not say where they live or where the work was
by citilife 8y ago
This sounds super sketchy:
> He said the parents involved declined to be identified or interviewed, and he would not say where they live or where the work was done.
> There is no independent confirmation of He's claim, and it has not been published in a journal, where it would be vetted by other experts. He revealed it Monday in Hong Kong to one of the organizers of an international conference on gene editing that is set to begin Tuesday, and earlier in exclusive interviews with The Associated Press.
To be honest, _if this is true_ it sounds like he modified them without the parents knowledge or consent. Usually, I'm super skeptical of any "research" coming out of China. However, I've suspected that China has been doing this for a while anyway (without sharing it). So I'm left with three possibilities in my mind:
1. Government is releasing this to see how the world will react
2. The doctor excited to share their work, shared it - but did the work without the parents consent
3. Parents did this knowingly and in a controlled way
Of those options I'm betting #2 followed by #1. Highly doubt even if the parents consented this was entered into with the knowledge of the risks. Seriously if they are using Cas9 who knows what else could go wrong.
- beefsack 8y agoYour quotes also highlight the possibility that this is all fabricated.
- SCAQTony 8y agoExactly. What happens when these babies become toddlers or young children and they start contracting all sorts of weird cancers. See article: Potential DNA damage from CRISPR has been ‘seriously underestimated,’ study finds https://www.statnews.com/2018/07/16/crispr-potential-dna-damage-underestimated/ https://www.statnews.com/2018/07/16/crispr-potential-dna-dam... The results come hard on the heels of two studies that identified a related issue: Some CRISPR’d cells might be missing a key anti-cancer mechanism and therefore be able to initiate tumors.
- wagutina 8y agoChina will make sure the world doesn't see the failures of their experiments, this is the very scary part of the story
- lettergram 8y agoIt looks like the work they were given supports the cas9 issue you were mentioning: > Several scientists reviewed materials that He provided to the AP and said tests so far are insufficient to say the editing worked or to rule out harm. > They also noted evidence that the editing was incomplete and that at least one twin appears to be a patchwork of cells with various changes.
- withhighprod 8y agoRe the “without consent” part of #2, is it hard to get some parent sign the agreements, even outside China?
- skosuri 8y agoThe AP article does state that Michael Deem (Rice) was there for the consent.
- scarejunba 8y agoIt’s funny to see Western standards here. There exist Eastern parents who will try to train their 2-year-olds to fly. That’s damned risky and an Indian tried it a couple of decades ago.