[jostmey]

Direct gene editing was invented about 45 years ago. I am surprised, even shocked, that no one tried this until now. CRISPR has certainly made it easier to do, but other techniques have existed since the 70s.

He Jiankui is being vilified now, but I wonder how history will remember him (if at all)

[radicaldreamer]

It has certainly been tried before, but in secret or without publicity.

He Jiankui is being fired for publicly announcing his experiment and the subsequent backlash (mostly deserved) from his peers.

[api]

I am not at all opposed to the idea of gene editing, but I wonder if the issue here isn't that he didn't have proper medical authorization to do this. Most countries have laws against cowboy medicine for a reason.

[jostmey]

If you seek medical authorization, you will find that no one will approve it

[kingkawn]

Because it will most likely lead to inhumane atrocities that would turn the general public against the technology for a generation

[anonytrary]

This anti-science stance is one based on fear, and that's not how society advances. Nothing should be banned from experiment and testing in controlled labs. Banning things preemptively out of fear is a sorry display of hubris. We do not know what technologies will be good or bad until we research and try them.

[kingkawn]

My perspective is an attempt to save this branch of research from annihilation in the public eye. This type of alteration of human beings is a supremely sensitive subject. Women are hardly permitted abortions in peace without bringing down political hell on them. What makes you think this research would not attract similar or worse scrutiny unless it is conducted with a degree of caution that would be excessive in any other endeavor?

[CamperBob2]

We'd never have developed vaccines with that attitude, though. The Precautionary Principle sounds great in theory, but it's a recipe for permanent stasis.

[api]

This isn't the precautionary principle, which is much more extreme. This is recognizing that "move fast and break things" is not a good idea in medicine.

One major foul up with human gene editing and the technology will be banned for at least a generation. Think about that.