I definitely think that Jankui followed through with his experiment even though he knew it was unethical. I think he sacrificed his reputation and took the risk for the development of this experiment to prove it can be done. There is not much that can be done to fix the situation except move on from it. What was edited on the babies cannot be reversed and there is no telling if there will be side effects of this editing and if so what they will be. He took the eggs of an HIV negative mother and an HIV positive father whose sperm was washed and grew the embryos in a lab. He edited out the CCR5 receptor from the T cells which are the targets of HIV to prevent the twins form contracting the disease later in life.
This isn’t the first unethical scientific experiment done on involuntary candidates. During the Holocaust, Nazi scientists would take prisoners who were twins of the concentration camps and subject them to testing. Some of these tests include blood transfusions, forced insemination, injections with diseases, amputations, and even trying chemicals to change eye color on over 1,500 sets of twins. Like Jankui, Mengele (the Head of the Nazi experimentation) was fascinated with the twins because of their genetic identity to be able to use one as a control and run testing on the other. While it is known how crude and horrific the testing done by Mengele was, it is unknown the kind of effects can arise from Jankui’s experiment and only time will tell as the twins age.
I think these kinds of experiments definitely put a bad taste in peoples mouth when they hear the word “experiment.” Jankui’s actions have definitely set back the reputation of the Chinese scientific facilities and intentions. These unethical experiments are what make people scared of scientific studies and why we have eugenics codes in place to try and keep these things from happening.
Blakemore, E. (2019, July 8). Why the Nazis Were Obsessed With Twins. Retrieved from https://www.history.com/news/nazi-twin-experiments-mengele-eugenics
Normile, D. (2018, November 27). CRISPR bombshell: Chinese researcher claims to have created gene-edited twins. Retrieved from https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/11/crispr-bombshell-chinese-researcher-claims-have-created-gene-edited-twins#