Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- The Mutant Timeline
- Prologue : The World On Notice
- 1 I’m Quite Glad That I Wasn’T First
- 2 The China Dream
- 3 The Best Humans haven't been Produced Yet
- 4 Winner Takes All
- 5 Look at those Muscles, Look at that Butt
- 6 A Moral Choice
- 7 Will I have to Mortgage My House?
- 8 The Cancer Moonshot
- 9 Free Health Care for All
- 10 Silence = Death
- 11 Immortality has to be the Goal
- 12 I don't want to Walk. I want to Fly
- 13 High-Quality Children
- 14 #Transracial
- 15 American Medicine and only for You
- 16 He was Busy, Busy. Always doing Research
- 17 A Hammer, Looking for a Nail
- 18 Beautiful Lies
- 19 Two Healthy Baby Girls?
- 20 Mixed Wisdom
- 21 They are Moving Forward
- 22 Chinese Scientists are Creating Crispr Babies
- 23 Bubbles Vanishing into Air
- 24 The Hourse has Already Bolted
- Epilogue: We have Never Been Human
- Acknowledgments
- Notes
- Index
23 - Bubbles Vanishing into Air
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 December 2021
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- The Mutant Timeline
- Prologue : The World On Notice
- 1 I’m Quite Glad That I Wasn’T First
- 2 The China Dream
- 3 The Best Humans haven't been Produced Yet
- 4 Winner Takes All
- 5 Look at those Muscles, Look at that Butt
- 6 A Moral Choice
- 7 Will I have to Mortgage My House?
- 8 The Cancer Moonshot
- 9 Free Health Care for All
- 10 Silence = Death
- 11 Immortality has to be the Goal
- 12 I don't want to Walk. I want to Fly
- 13 High-Quality Children
- 14 #Transracial
- 15 American Medicine and only for You
- 16 He was Busy, Busy. Always doing Research
- 17 A Hammer, Looking for a Nail
- 18 Beautiful Lies
- 19 Two Healthy Baby Girls?
- 20 Mixed Wisdom
- 21 They are Moving Forward
- 22 Chinese Scientists are Creating Crispr Babies
- 23 Bubbles Vanishing into Air
- 24 The Hourse has Already Bolted
- Epilogue: We have Never Been Human
- Acknowledgments
- Notes
- Index
Summary
As the Chinese authorities investigated possible wrongdoing by Dr. Jiankui He, the families who participated in the experiment became swept up in the inquiry. Some Chinese social media influencers blamed the volunteers, saying that they should be burned or even shot to death. One couple who participated in the experiment made a bold rebuttal in a letter addressed to the judge who was overseeing the investigation: “Is the negative impact of these comments even greater than the research itself?” The couple applauded Dr. He for taking a risk while pointing to hypocrisy in Chinese society. In a formal letter to the court, they took aim at the most powerful person in the nation:
President Xi often claims that he cares for the people and their living conditions. Mother Peng [his wife] is the most beautiful representative of the HIV red ribbon. Is this all just a beautiful lie? Today there are people who are not scared of risk, who can put themselves in other people's shoes, and do something for people infected with HIV. Yet, they are being brutally crushed, pushed onto the cold sand beach by the tidal wave of comments, leaving them to die alone. What kind of dream should the China Dream be? Have the promises of harmony, love, and unity burst like bubbles vanishing into air?
The woman who was still pregnant from the experiment—known as P3 in the internal documents—was worried that her baby might be forcibly aborted by the authorities. In a letter addressed to the judge and court staff, she and her husband proclaimed: “Even if the child is disabled or unhealthy, we will take care of and treasure him/her.” The couple insisted that they fully understood the experimental risks and potential dangers before they signed up, saying that they were motivated by “feelings of contributing to science and society.” They wanted to protect the baby from the social stigma of HIV. Drugs can treat diseases like HIV, they argued, but “they can't cure prejudice!”
The expectant parents were not terribly apprehensive about giving birth to another baby who would join the ranks of the world's first genetically modified children. Tragically, however, by participating in this experiment they were exposed to humiliating treatment that overshadowed the disgrace of an HIV infection.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Mutant ProjectInside the Global Race to Genetically Modify Humans, pp. 233 - 238Publisher: Bristol University PressPrint publication year: 2021