Just over three years ago, Chinese scientist He Jiankui surprised the world by announcing that the first three genetically modified babies had been born; their genome supposedly edited to make them immune to the AIDS virus. For Professor Bartha Knoppers, a world authority on the ethical aspects of genetics, genomics and biotechnology, the verdict was clear. Jiankui’s intervention was unnecessary and sloppy, deserving of the prison sentence and the almost unanimous contempt of his colleagues that it received. On other occasions, the ethical line is much harder to draw.
She participated in writing the Universal Declaration on the Human Genome and Human Rights, which was adopted by the United Nations in 1998 and prohibits human cloning. More recently, she has been a member of the international commission created after the He Jiankui scandal. The expert group warned that gene editing techniques are still not safe, but left the door open for modifying the genes of children to avoid lethal diseases. Knoppers, director of the Center for Genomics and Policy at McGill University in Montreal (Canada), passed through Barcelona on March 21 to speak at a conference at the Center for Genomic Regulation.
Question: American chemist Jennifer Doudna (the mother of the CRISPR technique, which makes cheaper and relatively accurate gene editing possible) says she has had nightmares in which Adolf Hitler, covered with a pig mask, is asking her for more information about her invention. What nightmares do you have about genome editing?
Answer: I don’t have them. I’m optimistic. Perhaps I am too romantic. But, on the whole, the scientists I have worked with all my life are wonderful and very responsible people. I’m sure there are scientists who have evil intentions, but I have not met them. Sometimes we assume the worst of futures and try to make regulations from that assumption, but this isn’t the way to manage these new technologies – I don’t take the approach that something monstrous is going to happen.
Q. We have the example of the Chinese scientist He Jiankui.
A. There are irresponsible scientists and he is an example, but an irresponsible scientist or two can’t taint all those who are trying to advance medicine.
Q. Are you in favor of editing the human genome in such a way that the changes are inherited by following generations?
A. I was part of the international commission that prepared a report in 2020. We said that “at the moment” there is no safe and effective way to edit the germline (modifications that take place in the eggs, sperm or embryos themselves when they are only a single cell and that are then inherited by subsequent cells). So, at this point, I don’t support any intervention that hasn’t been
