He was hoping for a Nobel. He was sentenced to three years in prison, from which he has just been released. Chinese biologist He Jiankui announced at the end of 2018 that he had genetically modified human embryos, leading to the birth of three little girls, twins Lulu and Nana, then Amy. These “Crispr babies” were so nicknamed because of the genome editing technique used to modify a gene in order to protect them from the HIV that their biological fathers carried.
The announcement by He Jiankui, during an international congress in Hong Kong, had immediately created a scandal: the whole of the scientific community or almost considered that this technique was not mature enough for the safety of babies to be ensured, and that this “breakthrough” constituted a worrying precedent opening the door to eugenics promising “babies à la carte”. It was to appear later that He Jiankui was in contact with John Zhang, president of a major New York in vitro fertilization clinic and already controversial “father” in 2016 of a first “baby with three parents”, carrying the genetic heritage from its parents, but also DNA from mitochondria from a donor to counter a disease linked to the malfunction of these cellular factories.
This scientific and ethical condemnation of He Jiankui was accompanied by a painful examination of conscience: despite the warnings of multiple learned societies, the researchers had not been able to prevent one of their own, trained in China but also in United States, to attempt a form of “forbidden experiment” – even though he had informed several of his colleagues of his plans. The Chinese authorities had drawn the consequences of this fiasco by placing He Jiankui in solitary confinement and then in detention – along with two collaborators, also sentenced to three years in prison. Then by setting up an ethics committee and new standards concerning experiments affecting the human genome, and in particular modifications affecting germ cells, likely to be transmitted to subsequent generations.
He Jiankui, who has served his sentence, has been released, the newspaper reported on April 4. MIT Review, which had already revealed the birth of Lulu and Nana – and specifies that the interested party did not wish to answer his questions. More than three years after the explosion of his transgression, nothing has transpired on the identity and on the state of health of the girls. However, two Chinese bioethicists have just relaunched the debate on their future, and on the “special protection” that should be granted to them as “new vulnerable population group”. Qiu Renzong, from the Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing, and Lei Ruipeng, from Huazhong University in Wuhan, circulated a document to this effect in January among their peers and with the Chinese authorities. Review Nature had mentioned the content at the end of February. We were able to find out about it.
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