Before last week, few people had heard the name He Jiankui. But on
November 25, the young Chinese researcher became the center of a global
firestorm when it emerged that he had allegedly made the first CRISPR-edited babies, twin girls named Lulu and Nana. Antonio Regalado broke the story for MIT Technology Review, and He himself described the experiment at an international gene-editing summit in Hong Kong. After his talk, He revealed that another early pregnancy is under way.

It is still unclear if He did what he claims to have done. Nonetheless, the reaction was swift and negative. The CRISPR pioneer Jennifer Doudna says she was “horrified,” NIH Director Francis Collins said the experiment was “profoundly disturbing,” and even Julian Savulescu, an ethicist who has described gene-editing research as “a moral necessity,” described He’s work as “monstrous.”

Such
a strong reaction is understandable, given the many puzzling and
worrying details about the experiment. Even without any speculation
about designer babies and Gattaca-like
futures that may or may not come to pass, the details about what has
already transpired are galling enough. If you wanted to create the worst
possible scenario for introducing the first gene-edited babies into the
world, it is difficult to imagine how you could improve on this 15-part
farce.

The CRISPR Baby Scandal Gets Worse by the Day