学进去

What makes a human being? Is it our thoughts? Our emotions? Our behavior?

All of these things make us who we are, but at the center of the matter is the genome(基因组) the genes inside our bodies that may determine everything from our hair color to our intelligence. But if we could change our genome, what would it mean to us?

In an online video posted on Nov. 26, He Jiankui, a biological researcher from Southern University of Science and Technology in China, said that he had helped to make the world’s first genetically edited babies.

These are twin girls, born in November, with genes edited in an attempt to help them resist possible future infection with the AIDS virus.

He said that he chose to do this because HIV infections are a big problem in China. “I feel such a strong responsibility that it’s not just to make a first, but also to set an example,” He told the Associated Press(AP).

The announcement has caused an international storm.

Some believe that success will benefit the families of HIV patients. Given that HIV is “a major and growing public health threat,” attempted gene editing for HIV is “justifiable(无可非议的),” Harvard Medical School genetics professor George Church told AP.

However, others think that since gene editing technology is still premature, it is unsafe to attempt it.

“Gene editing itself is experimental and is still associated with unexpected mutations(突变), capable of causing genetic problems early and later in life, including the development of cancer.” Julian Savulescu, a specialist in ethics(伦理学) at the University of Oxford, told BBC News.

Others fear that this could open the door to using gene editing technology to make designer babies. It might give the parents the options to choose everything from their baby’s eye color to intelligence.

“You could find wealthy parents buying the latest ‘upgrades’(升级) for their children, leading to even greater inequality than we already live with,” Marcy Darnovsky, director of the San Francisco Center for Genetics, told BBC News.

However, Merlin Crossley, a biologist at the University of New South Wales, Australia, believes that’s a long way off . According to him, many genes produce qualities like height and intelligence—not to mention environmental influences.

And he believes the technology will be better controlled in the future.

“It’s hard to get genies(妖怪) back into bottles... but I’m optimistic that this technology, which I think of as ‘genetic surgery’, could be regulated quite effectively in the future,” Crossley told BBC News.