He Jiankui gene-edited two babies — and the scientific world condemned him

In November 2018, Chinese biophysicist He Jiankui announced at a summit in Hong Kong that he had used CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing to modify the embryos of twin girls, Lulu and Nana, to make them resistant to HIV. It was the first known case of gene-edited human babies.

The global scientific community reacted with near-universal condemnation. The experiment was deemed medically unnecessary (the father was HIV-positive but standard prevention methods exist), ethically unjustified (the risks of off-target mutations were unknown), and scientifically premature. He had bypassed institutional review and informed consent protocols.

He Jiankui was fired from Southern University of Science and Technology, prosecuted for illegal medical practice, and fined 3 million yuan. The case prompted China to tighten its regulations on human gene editing and became the defining example of how a researcher's ambition can outrun ethics, with consequences for the subjects who cannot consent.