How did the doctor who wanted to save humanity end up in jail: Who is He Jiankui?

Hashim El-Ghalili, a molecular biotechnologist working in Germany, claimed that babies can be produced in completely artificial wombs without being in the mother's womb. In other words, it is mentioned that babies with the desired characteristics from hair to eye color, height, and intelligence can be brought into the world. Moreover, the scientific world says that this is not impossible. The aim of the project is to eliminate maternal and infant deaths during childbirth and to keep the world population in balance. A doctor paid the price for this technology, which we can easily talk about today, and spent three years in prison. That doctor is Chinese biophysicist Dr. He Jiankui. Here's the story of why and how...

APPROVAL FROM NOBELLI EXPERT

In early 2018, a 34-year-old young specialist, Dr. He is going to Arizona, USA. There he meets geneticist James Watson. Watson, 90, does not understand Dr. He's accent, so he texts him. He tells Watson, who won the Nobel Prize for discovering the double helix structure of DNA in 1953, about his desire to genetically engineer unborn babies to eliminate the risk of disease. Watson responds by writing, “Make people better.” Dr. He then begins his experiment. Because of this subject, in many scientific societies, including the ethics committee of Shenzhen Harmonicare Women's and Children's Hospital in China, Dr. He had given the green light.

THE PERFECT HUMAN REVOLUTION

Dr. He announced in November 2018 that the twins of an HIV-carrying couple were born free of this disease. Premature twins Lulu and Nana were born immune to AIDS. This was seen as "a development that would change the course of human evolution". While ethical debates continue, Dr. He began to be invited to conferences in many places. In the same month, he was a speaker at the gene editing summit at the University of Hong Kong. Joining biologist Robin Lovell-Badge from London asked him a key question. “Could this genetic editing inadvertently lead to an improvement that would make a human superior (perfect)?” said. Dr. He said, “I didn't do anything like that, and I'm against the use of gene editing for privileges.”

However, a great controversy broke out. It was deemed ethically unacceptable that this technology could also create highly qualified people. Scientific societies in his home country, Dr. He was proclaimed "China's Frankenstein". 122 Chinese experts, issued a statement stating that they saw He's a practice as "madness".  Dr. He was accused of discrediting scientific studies in China. Dr. He was tried and sentenced to three years in prison in December 2019 for "illegally altering a human embryo for reproduction". He was also fined 3 million yuan. Dr. He defended himself by saying, "I made a genetic vaccine." As a matter of fact, it was genetic-based mRNA vaccines that saved the world in the COVID-19 pandemic.

'Test tube baby was also criticized '

When you think about it, it is obvious how disproportionate punishment this detention is. Released in April, Dr. He was condemned by the university where he worked, where he was taken on unpaid leave after his experiment. All his experiences did not turn him away from science. This time he is working on the treatment of the genetic muscle disease Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. Some are Dr. He explains, "When the IVF method came out, it was called 'test tube children'. But today everyone knows at least one IVF. The developers won the Nobel, too,” he argues.

"The main problem with this is that we don't know exactly the consequences of modifying the genes of healthy people," says US neuroscientist Alcino Silva. Meanwhile, twins Lulu and Nana are growing up healthily. No abnormality has been detected so far. But for the effects of the experiment to be fully understood, they need to be followed for the rest of their lives.