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Ten ways in which He Jiankui violated ethics

Nature Biotechnology volume 37, pages 19–20 (2019)Cite this article

To the Editor:

In late November, the world learned that He Jiankui, an associate professor at the Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen, China, had edited human embryos, at least two of which were brought to term through an in vitro fertilization (IVF) pregnancy. At the time of writing, the data describing these experiments had yet to be peer reviewed. Irrespective of the problematic nature of science by press announcement, the methods, timing and procedures used by He in his clinical trials violate several ethical norms, including international consensus guidelines, national regulations and well-established principles of bioethics. He is not a medical doctor, but rather received his doctorate in biophysics and did postdoctoral studies in gene sequencing; he lacks training in bioethics, responsible conduct of human research, or a background in evolutionary biology that might have informed him of some of the glaring deficiencies in his work. Here I list ten ethical principles that He violated through his interviews, website, meeting presentation and the accompanying news reports in China and the United States that featured him.

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References

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  1. Lenore Stern Professor of Humanities & Social Sciences and Adjunct Professor of Public Health & Community Medicine, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts, USA

    Sheldon Krimsky

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Correspondence to Sheldon Krimsky.

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Krimsky, S. Ten ways in which He Jiankui violated ethics. Nat Biotechnol 37, 19–20 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt.4337

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