I think that Jankui continued his experiment because he was passionate about his work. He saw something that could work and went for it and set out to find a way to create an immunity to HIV. I do think that he knew that people would find this to be an unethical experiment. If Jankui believed that this would be something people would accept whole-heatedly then I don't think he would have released their research the day before a summit to talk about human genome editing. I personally believe that Jankui probably thought there was a chance that their research would be deemed illegal and he would have to stop his research and these twins would go unknown to most people. I think that Jankui should be held responsible for his ethical code violations. I also believe that there is no way Jankui and his team have a way of knowing all the possible side effects/consequences for removing the CCR5. So, if this causes problems with the twins health, I think Jankui should have to be held responsible for medical bills and possible criminal charges. I do think this experiment is different than other trials in the fact that the people signed up for the trial willingly. The researchers never forced anyone to take part in it. I also think Jankui was making a legitimate effort to create a resistance to HIV. This is different than the Tuskegee Syphilis Trials where they basically watched if Syphilis would kill African Americans different than White people. They even refused to give the subjects penicillin after it was found as a cure for Syphilis. I think things like this could raise excitement about the things that science can do, but it can also be scary to some people at the same time.
Hi Nate,
I fully agree that while Jankui was passionate about his work he didn't know what kind of unforeseen side effects this could have on the twins that can ruin their quality of life. This key point is what makes the experiment unethical. I think that the experiment otherwise is ethical but it only takes one step like that to ruin the whole experiment. I do believe that he should be responsible for his actions and pay for any bills or treatments as a result of his experiment. While this experiment is different than the past unethical experiments which usually involved testing on those of "lesser" importance (i.e slaves, African-Americans, Holocaust prisoners) it still falls under the unethical category just the same. I believe this will probably set back gene editing experiments for years to come.
I fully agree that while Jankui was passionate about his work he didn't know what kind of unforeseen side effects this could have on the twins that can ruin their quality of life. This key point is what makes the experiment unethical. I think that the experiment otherwise is ethical but it only takes one step like that to ruin the whole experiment. I do believe that he should be responsible for his actions and pay for any bills or treatments as a result of his experiment. While this experiment is different than the past unethical experiments which usually involved testing on those of "lesser" importance (i.e slaves, African-Americans, Holocaust prisoners) it still falls under the unethical category just the same. I believe this will probably set back gene editing experiments for years to come.
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Hey Nate! I really liked how you said that if this experiment was something the public would agree to, he would not have released their research the day before a summit to talk about human genome editing. I agree with you and think that he knew he was potentially doing something very unethical and that it could backlash but he was so intent of being right and showing off his findings. I also think Jankui should have to be held responsible for medical bills and possible criminal charges if they come up. I also agree that these findings can definitely raise excitement but also scare people.
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Hey Nate! I like how you explained how the situation should be handled and that he should be responsible for his actions that he took, and that there were some rash decisions in not knowing what would happen to the twins after removing the CCR5 gene. I also will say that it was a different type of unethical experiment where the patients signed up willingly and knew what they were signing up for, and no one was really forced do the experiment. I also agree with you that he was definitely trying to make a cure for HIV and trying to make a difference in the world. Also, I like how you compared this experiment to the Tuskegee syphilis trials, and how different these two experiments were and how the test subjects were treated differently.
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