The platforming of human embryo editing: prospecting "disease free" futures

In November 2018, a scientific scandal broke when news emerged that the world's first gene edited babies had been born in China on the eve of the 2nd International Summit on Human Genome Editing in Hong Kong. He Jiankui had recruited a total of seven couples who were in need of fertility treatm...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inNew genetics and society Vol. 40; no. 4; pp. 367 - 383
Main Authors Wahlberg, Ayo, Dong, Dong, Song, Priscilla, Jianfeng, Zhu
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Abingdon Routledge 02.10.2021
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Taylor & Francis Group
Subjects
bioethics
biomedical platforms
Disease
gene editing
Genetics
He Jiankui
Health services
Infants
Medicine
selective reproduction
Hong Kong
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Summary:In November 2018, a scientific scandal broke when news emerged that the world's first gene edited babies had been born in China on the eve of the 2nd International Summit on Human Genome Editing in Hong Kong. He Jiankui had recruited a total of seven couples who were in need of fertility treatment to participate in an effort to clinically apply human embryo editing with the promise that, if successful, their future children would be protected from HIV. While He Jiankui has since been jailed for illegal medical practice and much has been written about his unethical and flawed "experiment," in this article we suggest that the Hong Kong summit nevertheless marked the moment when human embryo editing came to be platformed. Human embryo editing brings together a complete set of new reproductive and genetic technologies into a total bio-reproductive platform shaped by socio-technical "disease free" imaginaries.
ISSN:1463-6778
1469-9915
DOI:10.1080/14636778.2021.1997578