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
2 - The China Dream
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
Public opinion about Dr. He's experiment was still forming as I wrapped up brunch with Helen O’Neill and headed to mainland China. Some social media influencers were repeating Beijing's initial message: that Jiankui He had achieved what others only imagined, outpacing the international competition, bringing glory to the nation. “Pioneers will always be the target of an attack,” in the words of one viral post. Another said: “New things will always be questioned and criticized.” But many others saw the experiment as a national disgrace: “This is unfortunate for the children, it is unfortunate for China, and it is unfortunate for mankind.” A reckoning was coming: the values animating the biotechnology innovation economy and the profit-driven health care industry were headed for a collision with the old guard of the Communist Party.
Dr. He designed the world's first CRISPR babies just across the border from Hong Kong, in Shenzhen—a futuristic city known for speed and innovation. Just a week earlier, the young scientist had been at the peak of his power, with support from major investors, hospital administrators, established scientists, university leaders, and even government officials. As controversy reverberated out from the summit, his allies and supporters issued public statements, trying to distance themselves.
I was traveling to Shenzhen late on a Sunday afternoon, and there were long lines at the Futian Checkpoint, as throngs of people returned home after spending the weekend shopping or visiting family and friends in Hong Kong. In mainland China people were going about everyday life—walking dogs in parks, eating in cafes, making social media posts about Lulu and Nana but quickly moving on to other concerns. Before crossing the border, I had set up a burner phone with a virtual private network (VPN), giving me an electronic tunnel under the Great Firewall of China. Without it, the apps animating my life—Gmail, Facebook Messenger, and Google—would fail to load. Not wanting to get embroiled in controversy myself, I was tiptoeing around the edges of the scandal, slowly learning about the cultural and historical forces that enabled Dr. He's sudden emergence into the global spotlight.
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- The Mutant ProjectInside the Global Race to Genetically Modify Humans, pp. 23 - 37Publisher: Bristol University PressPrint publication year: 2021