I think that this scientist simply wanted to be the first person to complete this experiment. Whether it is successful or not, his name will be remembered and that is something that must be important to him. He will have so much more to gain if these girls remain healthy and have healthy offspring. In my own opinion, I think that these two girls should be given free medical care by the state and allowed to have consistent health monitoring. If this goes against any laws in China, then the researcher should be punished. But, if there are no laws, then more laws banning this practice in China should be expanded, to protect individuals from possible undue harm.
In high school, I read the book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks and it really struck a nerve with me. This woman was treated in such an unethical way do to the intersection of her race, gender and socioeconomic status. Also, the laws of that time took away the rights of a person to any organs or cells removed, so she had no legal fight. Her cells have been a part of the creation of many vaccines and are a multibillion dollar industry. And, when the book came out in 2010, her children and grandchildren were so poor they could not even afford health insurance.
Her story has a lot of the same undertones of this story. One parent had HIV and therefore had fear surrounding the disease. But, this researcher used that fear to experiment on the embryos, which were extremely unlikely to get HIV. He also used the country's vague laws to his own personal and financial advantage.
I think that this case was so popular that people who do not read scientific journals know about it. I think that this will show some people the problems with the idea of "designer babies" because there are still so many unknowns.
Li, J. (2019). Experiments that led to the first gene-edited babies: the ethical failings and the urgent need for better governance. J Zhejiang Univ Sci B. 20(1): 32-38. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6331330
Normile, D. (2018). CRISPR bombshell: Chinese researcher claims to have created gene-edited twins. Science mag. Retrieved from https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/11/crispr-bombshell-chinese-researcher-claims-have-created-gene-edited-twins