Science News Desk!!! The controversial Chinese scientist who created the world’s first gene-edited babies and was jailed for three years in 2018 and 2019 has spoken out, saying that the genetically edited children are living happily with their parents . In an interview with The South China Morning Post, He Jiankui said that his life is normal, peaceful and uninterrupted. “It is his wish and we should respect him,” Hu was quoted as saying in the report. The happiness of the children and their families must come first. Asked if he is worried about the future of the children, the scientist said: You will have high hopes for them, but you will also have great uneasiness.
In December 2019, a Chinese court sentenced Jiankui to three years in prison for violating medical regulations by using a gene-editing tool called CRISPR-Cas9. In 2018 Hu shocked the world when it announced they had created two genetically modified twin girls, named Lulu and Nana. A third child, Amy, was born the following year, also in China. They used the gene-editing tool CRISPR-Cas9 to rewrite the CCR5 gene, a genetic mutation known to confer resistance to HIV.
After the age of 18, children will decide whether to have medical follow-up for their individual needs, the scientist told the publication. We are committed to doing this throughout their lives. He now wants to set up a charitable foundation to raise money and cover the medical expenses of the three children. The scientist has been invited to visit the University of Oxford next month to give a talk about the use of CRISPR gene-editing technology in reproductive medicine. The report states that they have set up a new lab in Beijing to work on affordable gene therapy for rare genetic diseases. His experiments, which were conducted on seven fetuses in late 2018, shocked the medical and scientific world.
–IANS
SGK