China government orders stop to gene edited baby

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China doesn't want the Eugencis Wars

Quote

China’s government ordered a halt Thursday to work by a medical team that claimed to have helped make the world’s first gene-edited babies, as a group of leading scientists declared that it’s still too soon to try to make permanent changes to DNA that can be inherited by future generations.

Chinese Vice Minister of Science and Technology Xu Nanping told state broadcaster CCTV that his ministry is strongly opposed to the efforts that reportedly produced twin girls born earlier this month. Xu called the team’s actions illegal and unacceptable and said an investigation had been ordered, but made no mention of specific actions taken.

Researcher He Jiankui claims to have altered the DNA of the twins to try to make them resistant to infection with the AIDS virus. Mainstream scientists have condemned the experiment, and universities and government groups are investigating.

He’s experiment “crossed the line of morality and ethics adhered to by the academic community and was shocking and unacceptable,” Xu said.

Bet this guy isn't too happy about this development....

[Briefly]

My first thought when I read the original story a couple of days ago on a news site was that Star Trek got another one right.  "Everything I ever needed to know I learned from ST" and of course all the other things we have that were originally thought of on ST - flip phones/communicators, IPADS/TriCorders, and the list goes on.  But this one is actually kind of scary.  I hope that it's not actually true, that this is another one of those stories that come out every few years but then are never able to be proven.

Also, Ricardo Montalban as Khan rules!!